Broadening My Horizons on the Alpine Tundra 2019-03-05 18:40:07.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   As an Education Observer up on the summit, often times I’m tasked with developing and delivering programs based on weather and Mount Washington. It’s something that I’ve become very comfortable doing over the past few months, and I’ve become very passionate about my work. I like being able to share my knowledge about weather, and doing so in such a way that people can understand and better relate to the summit makes me very, very happy! Aside from learning the intricacies of mountain weather,

Not on the windy shift this Year 2019-03-04 02:01:43.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Last Monday on February 25th, the summit saw some pretty incredible winds and I was not able to come up and witness it myself! Since I have started working here in August of 2015, I have been hoping to see the wind go off the chart. I have come close on several occasions, even just recently on January 22nd when the winds got to 137 and gusted just to the edge of the chart but not off. This year we have had 2 storms,

A look into the wonky weather New England has been experiencing this winter season 2019-03-02 08:36:37.000 - Jay Broccolo, Summit Intern   Well, our shift does not have a crazy wind event or any kind of weather to write home about so I am going to discuss something that, I personally, think everyone should have some understanding of. This is a fairly intensive post so go grab a snack or a drink, strap in and put your thinking caps on! Also, this starts with a bit of text, but, I promise, there are pretty pictures further down. If you have not noticed,

Monday's Wind 2019-02-26 20:33:18.000 - Krissy Fraser, Events & Marketing Manager   Mount Washington Observatory staff and guests experienced an epic day of wind on the summit on Monday, February 25, 2019. They gathered in the non-profit’s legendary weather room with all eyes pegged to the Hays Chart* eager to see how fast the winds would blow as it topped out at 171 miles per hour at 6:35pm.     Taylor Regan, Weather Observer and Research Specialist recounts the experience, “everyone gathered around the Hays Chart watching with bated breath as the ink climbed higher up the paper wheel. The

Brighter Times Ahead 2019-02-23 21:44:30.000 - Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist   This morning I viewed something from the summit that I hadn't seen since late October, 2018 - morning blue hour. Over my 13 years working up here, this event is one of the things I look forward to annually working my night shifts on the summit. To some it might be mundane and something they see every day while getting ready or heading off to work or school. But for me, during the late October/early November to late February/early March time-frame, I have to either lose sleep and/or

Some Common Questions and Misconceptions About Mount Washington 2019-02-22 09:14:51.000 - Thomas Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   How do you measure snowfall in high winds? Accurately measuring snowfall can be challenging or even impossible in very high winds. During the early days of the observatory we discovered that using a Nipher Screen can help to more accurately capture snowfall during moderate (30-60 mph) winds. This Nipher screen is basically a large funnel over the top portion of the precipitation stand which helps create a vacuum to capture snowflakes. Our winter precipitation cans are also taller than the summer season can

Working Nights with a Full Moon 2019-02-20 05:09:40.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Working nights can be taxing on your sleep schedule but there are quite a few moments of peacefulness. My favorite nights to work are nights with light winds and a full moon in the winter. The past few days have featured such nights. The moon has been so bright that I have not needed to let my eyes adjust for long to be able to distinguish landmarks! One of the nights, the clouds had cleared after some snow showers and I did not need to

Battles with Blowing Snow 2019-02-18 10:57:20.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   Mt. Washington is home to the World’s Worst Weather. If you are from the area, a frequent visitor or have been to the summit, you have likely heard this before. And there is a lot of truth in that statement! We see insane wind speeds throughout the year, frequently gusting to or above 100 mph. We see incredible amounts or snow and ice, with the snow pack sometimes lasting well into the summer! And for 2/3 of the year, we have fog with low visibility! Over the

The Wonders of the World 2019-02-16 07:42:12.000 - Jay Broccolo, Summit Intern   When I woke up this morning, knowing I was going to write a blog post today, I had no idea what I was going to discuss. I played with the idea of discussing the weather, but I figured there are plenty of outlets for that happen through our forecasts, FB live events, and social media, to mention a few. I made my coffee and headed up to the weather room remembering that the skies had cleared before I went to bed, so there was still a chance

The Anything-But Calm Before the Storm! 2019-02-11 08:31:34.000 - Chloe Boehm, Summit Intern   The summit this weekend saw a pretty incredible wind event with a peak gust of 148 mph. Although the highest winds were on Saturday, Friday morning saw the most dramatic increase in wind speed. The winds jumped from 45 mph to 124 mph in just 7 minutes! For those of us working in the weather room, it seemed to come out of nowhere! One minute we could barely hear the wind at all, and the next, a roar of wind erupted. (Picture of the wind gust