October "Winter" 2007-10-14 21:41:16.000 - Aubrie Pace,  Summit Intern NULL On Friday we were experiencing icing. Here on the Summit we get two kinds of ice: glaze and rime. I have already experienced rime ice (see the ObsCast slide show from September 17), which has a beautiful feathered pattern. Friday, I got a chance to see glaze ice, which looks just like frozen water against everything. Ryan was out to de-ice many times and our volunteer Steve Walsh took a video of him at work. The wind was from the NW at 65 MPH with temperatures of 25 degrees Fahrenheit.

Octobers Winter Fun 2007-10-13 17:02:33.000 - Peter Sciola,  Summit Intern Tower at sunrise. Last night brought our first significant coastal storm of the soon to be winter season, along with temperatures in the upper teens. The result: Ryan was blessed with the task of deicing the tower every hour. So needless to say, with the intern room right next to the tower, I didn’t get a great night sleep with the crowbar hitting the parapet and resounding throughout the tower every hour. I was later awoken by Brian at about 5:30 this morning because we had broken out the clouds

The Language of Numbers 2007-10-11 23:36:10.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist NULL Numbers, a universal language. A one here means one the world over. Some numbers can evoke a feeling of luck like the number 7. Some can evoke a feeling of fear like the number 13. Alone, 11 and 7 are just quantities but combined, they represent a location known for slushees. The number 6288 is meaningless unless feet is attached and anyone familiar with Mount Washington knows that as our elevation. When descriptors are added to numbers, they provide meaning and context to people reading them. In meteorology,

volunteer comment 2007-10-10 08:58:04.000 - Summit Volunteer,  Summit Volunteers NULL Today is Wednesday October 10th and as we get ready to leave after our first week of volunteering at the Summit we find we have a reason we made far too much spaghetti sauce earlier in the week, we’re feeding everybody lunch today at shift change! It’s been a terrific week here at the Summit with Kyle, Zach, Stacey, Linnea, Karen and Sharon but of course the main treat was meeting up close and personal the King of the Mountain, Nin! After getting the “new volunteer” tour by the previous

What just happened??? 2007-10-09 05:11:57.000 - Zach Allen,  Observer Rollercoaster ride! Yesterday showed a very unusual upward and downward spike in the temperature display. Believe it or not this really did happen, no technology problems whatsoever! The event took place between the times 2:28 EST and 2:39 EST. It took eleven minutes and had me running around the building preparing for some good ol’ fashion Mount Washington freezing rain and icing.The first five minutes saw the temperature drop from 36 F to 32 F. By this time I watched the digital display of the thermograph drop… fast! My natural observer

Let the calibration begin!! 2007-10-08 13:09:17.000 - Linnea Koons,  Summit Intern NULL The Observatory has just purchased 2 shiny new pieces of equipment as part of the RIU (Research Infrastructure Upgrade) project. On the left is the powerful TTI-7 – a high precision, highly accurate thermometer and to the right is the Hyperion – a high precision, high accuracy icebath. Together they will serve as the Obs standard and be used to calibrate ALL of our other thermometers. Why bother with this?The Obs currently uses seven different types of thermometers to take the temperature. All of them give us slightly

NULL 2007-10-06 17:20:05.000 - Kyle Paddleford,  Observer NULL During shift change meeting this past Wednesday Ken was stressing the importance of looking ahead and keeping an eye on any weather systems that may complicate transportation to and from the summit. The reason that this is becoming a more important issue is because we are now entering the time of year where our daily average temperatures are right around the freezing mark on the summit, although it is quite hard to believe with all the warm weather as of late. A nice day at the base of the mountain does not

Night Sky 2007-10-05 22:59:22.000 - Zach Allen,  Meteorologist NULL Before starting my stint here at the observatory, I was not much of a night person. After a few months of staying up late to provide the forecast it has been quite an adjustment being a night observer. Over the past four months I have recognized patterns in the night sky, for example when the moon will rise. Each night the moon rises later or sooner as the phase changes. The clear nights have been quite rewarding. Endless amounts of stars appear as my eyes adjust to the darkness. The belt

Thoughts on the past 2007-10-04 17:08:00.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer Fall Foliage I was able to code “SKC” for my very first time today. That means that during one of my hourly observations, I observed not a single cloud in the sky. I am beginning my third month up on the summit, that might give you an idea of how rarely this actually occurs. With clear skies, and visibility at about 75 miles, all of us are provided with a fantastic view of the valleys and the fall foliage. Last week, I began to read a book, Mount Washington Reoccupied,

A weeks Experience. 2007-10-02 15:34:25.000 - Frank Link & Al Sukowaski,  Summit Volunteers NULL As first time volunteers on Mount Washington we weren"t sure what to expect other than that we had hoped that being later in September there would be a chance to see some of that infamous Mt. Washington weather and winds.As volunteers we're here to help the WMO staff, our main job is is to make sure that the staff has a good dinner every night and that the living quarters are maintained. It was fun cooking for them- hopefully they enjoyed our meals. But what ever