Forecasting in the Backcountry 2007-10-18 22:14:30.000 - Zach Allen,  Meteorologist A taste of Vermont. This entire off week was spent backpacking a 40 mile section of the Long Trail in the Green Mountains of southern Vermont. It was a switch from hiking in the White Mountains. The trek went smoothly and was very relaxing. The one thing that was hard to get used to was what the weather was going to do while in the wilderness. A week ago, the question was if the weather was ever going to clear up. The first couple of days were socked in with

Volunteer Reflections 2007-10-17 08:08:22.000 - Paul Goundrey and Steve Walsh,  Summit Volunteers Tower at sunrise Thoughts from the Top, my first week as a volunteer:-Cooking for 8-11 people is hard work.-Having fun cooking for 8-11 people with fellow volunteer Steve.-Choclate Chip bars, homemade hot fudge sauce (thanks Aubrie) and whipped cream, 'nough said!-Quite a place to call home for a week, imagine Bigelow and Monticello Lawn as your backyard!-Things I noticed in 70 mph wind, snow and fog:*Ever try to empty a mouse trap?*If you like winter this is the place for you. Loving it!*Don't need to go for a

Nin 2007-10-16 17:21:28.000 - Nin,  Summit Cat Agent Nin Hello, this is Nin.Do not be alarmed.I have not been abducted.I am on a secret mission.I was sent down for my yearly physical.I report to you now from the valley office location of Mount Washington Observatory. They also call this place the Weather Discovery Center but I have discovered no weather of any type since I have been here, at least not by my standards.Here is what I have learned so far;There are no mice here.There are no hikers here.I don’t smell food.There is no kitchen here.Nobody has any cookies.There are

IT observers reflections. 2007-10-15 21:02:22.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Interesting riming. It’s Monday evening and my first week, living at the top of Mount Washington, is drawing too a close. It’s been a great change for me having spent the last 15 plus years working in the printed circuit board manufacturing industry. Quite a culture shock moving from an eight foot cubicle to standing on top of the observation tower de-icing in sixty mile an hour winds! All in all the week has been great, the views from my new office are truly out of this world. The weather

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