SPRING! 2007-05-08 19:54:13.000 - Jon Cotton,  Observer Deep Hues of the Northeast SPRING!At 4:58am Monday May 07 I heard my first twittering spring bird. At 5:56 the next hour I saw a flittering bird settling on a rock. You might assume given those times that I was taking an observation. But no, Kyle was on shift. He was business. I was pleasure. For some reason I felt compelled to continue the hourly ritual. It turns out that 120 mile vis, alto clouds and sunrise aren't so bad a combination. Work is tough.Looking out the window shows the snowpack is melting.

Changes on the Summit 2007-05-07 02:17:52.000 - Mike Finnegan,  Summit Intern Moon in Clouds With warming temperatures and generally friendly weather, things have been changing. The last few days have brought many new sights to the summit. The large snowfield blocking the path of the cog mentioned in the last comment has been cleared and the cog has made it to the top of the summit. Today was also the first day where the snowcat was left to rest and the truck with the new, pointy chains energetically made its first trip to the summit. Nin is the only cat

NULL 2007-05-03 13:16:38.000 - Kyle Paddleford,  Meteorologist Lenticulars It was a tight squeeze fitting into the snowcat during shift change yesterday. Additional staff members, tools, and supplies needed to get to the summit after a few attempts in April were foiled due to snow storms and undermined snow on the Auto Road. The extra crew stayed overnight, and after a long day of hard work, they were treated to a wonderful dinner prepared by Katherine MacDonald, our volunteer for the week. Mother Nature then treated us all to a sky full of lenticulars and nice sunset for dessert. It is

Window to ski... 2007-05-01 10:49:10.000 - Brent Antkowiak,  Summit Intern Today This morning I was greeted with the news that we were FINALLY CLEARING! Yes, it does happen on this shift……sometimes. After being in the fog for several relentless days, with rain, mixed precipitation, and then thunder snow yesterday, it’s about time we get to see more than the end of the observation deck. Of course, with that sounding slightly negative towards the weather up here, I should remind everyone that I enjoy that kind of weather, and the extreme weather is why most of us are up here. Back

Lightning strikes again!!! 2007-04-30 12:06:53.000 - Jim Salge,  Observer NULL Just when we felt like everything was finally managed and under control with regard to systems, lightning strikes again. This is, of course meant to be taken in the literal sense, and as the line of showers moved over the peak this morning, lightning struck the summit five times. Everyone remained safe, and though power surges seem to have necessitated resetting some equipment, we seem to be back to the almost normal state we’ve been at through the weekend. A temporary internet dish has been put in place over the

Down links continues... 2007-04-28 15:43:11.000 - The Summit Crew,  Mount Washington Observatory NULL Though updates have been slow on the website, the work at the summit has gone on mainly as routine through some technical challenges, most still stemming from the storm two weeks ago. We appreciate your patience, but must make our readership aware that more outages are likely in the days ahead.While comments and blogs are important for our membership, we also understand that our exclusive 36 hour summits outlook has become an important tool for area climbers. This product may unfortunately also experience outages in the coming

Changing Seasons 2007-04-27 09:20:59.000 - Jim Salge,  Observer NULL Note: This comment was written on Wednesday. Due to problems that are no fault of the Observers, it did not get posted. Please bear with us through these trying times. Mike Davidson - ITIt’s good to be back on the summit this week in relative calm, especially by comparison to the conditions we experienced last we were here. The summit is a much different place than last we saw it, and this crew is looking forward to both a return to normalcy, and to exploring the new west and north snowfields

And Now For Something Completely Different 2007-04-24 07:25:10.000 - Jon Cotton,  Observer Spring on the Range The summit is not what it used to be. Not like the olden days of last week when snow would blow through the very crevices of the foundation and pile so high it would bury a doorway. Back in the day when ice was so thick it could bend steel mounting bars. Why I hear the winds would knock a man flat just fer step'n outside with the wrong colored hat on. I hear tell of a Ryan Knapp feller that had to walk

The Shift Change Update 2007-04-22 07:55:40.000 - Jon Cotton,  Observer A lot of Really Heavy Snow Alright, this is last week's shift change update. A normal change takes place on Wednesday with the upcoming crew leaving the base at 8:30am (valley time). Our fleet of vehicles consists of the summertime van, a truck and of course the snowcat. In the between seasons we either take the truck with tire chains up the entire way or switch from truck to snowcat part way up the road depending on snow cover. Top speed in the cat means an hour to travel the

The Internet Update 2007-04-20 23:49:45.000 - Jon Cotton,  Observer NULL Last night I really didn't have time to write an in-depth account of recent activities on the summit. Our Internet was still down and work was needed to restore it. There was a balance of writing a comment/something/anything and hoping to post it in a small window of uptime, diagnosing the problem, finishing the day's record check and trying to gather all the materials for the morning forecast. As far as our Internet connectivity goes, the aftermath shows that the issue was water in the valley connection and probable misalignment