What is a Wintery Mix? 2019-05-14 15:44:36.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   We’ve reached the time of year where you may often hear phrases such as “a mix of precipitation” or even “a wintery mix of precipitation” in the forecast product you peruse. And you may find yourself wondering what exactly that means. Why can’t meteorologist just tell you that it’s going to rain or snow? Well, unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Allow me to explain. Precipitation forecasting is one of the more difficult tasks a meteorologist faces for a number of reason. Current technology

Bring on the Snow! 2019-05-13 12:58:02.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Once again there is snow in the forecast for the summit of Mount Washington. Snow storms like this one are always exciting up here, no matter the season, at least for me anyways. This storm has been fairly complicated to forecast for due to weak dynamics aloft. This is really to be expected at this time of the year as the jet stream weakens and there is not as big of a temperature gradient between the north pole and the equator to help increase baroclinicity (One of

Visiting Us Information 2019-05-06 08:44:16.000 - Chloe Boehm, Summit Intern   Rising temperatures and melting snow often marks the transition between a brutal winter season and a more favorable summer season where buildings on the summit have the opportunity to open to the public. Although preparations must still be completed before all services can be open, I wanted to take this opportunity to give people the resources they will need to plan a trip up to the summit this summer any hopefully answer questions concerning this transition season. Mount Washington Observatory: Our Weather Discovery Center in North Conway is open

Turning 30 on Mount Washington! 2019-04-30 20:24:01.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   Last Wednesday I hit a milestone in my life. On the way up to the summit, I turned 30 years old! Admittedly, I was a little sad that I wouldn’t be at home with my family to celebrate surviving 30 trips around the sun. Fortunately, the Mountain had some awesome presents to give me! And I am very grateful for the experiences I had as a result. This has been my first winter season here on the summit. And there have been plenty of adventures throughout

Back to Truck and Van Season 2019-04-26 12:30:33.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Winter seems like it has come to a fairly abrupt end up here on the Rockpile this year which is quite the difference from the previous few years. We went from having plenty of snow on the mountain from top to bottom taking the snow cat from the base up to just using the truck and van the whole way in only a matter of weeks. All this warm weather and rain melted the snow fast and allowed for the Auto road to make significant

Happy Earth Day! 2019-04-22 10:07:30.000 - Chloe Boehm, Summit Intern   Today is Earth Day which means it is a great day to recognize the beautiful planet we live on and the vast number of species that inhabit the planet with us. Living and working on the top of Mount Washington gives us the unique opportunity to experience the extreme weather that this area sees as well see the incredible sights on a daily basis. Not many places in the world can you go from a day of sunny skies and light winds to recording a peak wind gust of

Signs of Spring 2019-04-19 15:30:09.000 - Thomas Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist    Photos taken by Weather Observer Ryan Knapp of the progression of our melting snow pack ahead of the weekend rain.  Signs of spring are finally working their way into the surrounding valleys here of northern New England, with most of our snow melted here in the North Conway area. Spring birds have been here for the last few weeks, and we even had a few sightings here on the summit of Mount Washington! With rain currently falling as of this writing and temperatures in the 40s, it makes

New Personal Wind Record! 2019-04-16 20:14:03.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   We had a pretty exciting night here on the summit last night! Most of us set new personal wind records, with a maximum verified gust of 142 mph! It was a long night of deicing and monitoring the Hays Chart, and we did not expect it to get anywhere near as fast as it did! Looking back on what lead up to the event, I can’t help but laugh. As a crew, we were sitting around the dinner table last night commenting on how fast we thought

Intern to Night Observer! 2019-04-15 06:50:58.000 - Jay Broccolo, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   It has been a bit since my last blog post, but for good reason. I have been training and becoming accustomed to the night shift. I recently hired as the Night Observer and Meteorologist and there is not a whole lot of overlap going from Intern during the day to Night Observer. The only similarity is the forecast, which I am thankful for the time spent as an intern so I could familiarize myself with the microclimate of Mount Washington and its orographic effect on the weather. The rest has all been

85th Big Wind Anniversary 2019-04-08 10:25:42.000 - Staff, MWO     The founding staff of the Mount Washington Observatory in 1932: (L-R) Alex McKenzie, Bob Monahan, Joe Dodge, and Sal Pagliuca.   Nearly 85 years ago, on the tallest peak in the northeast, a group of hardy individuals witnessed a truly unforgettable event, a storm which brought a world-record 231 mph gust of wind to the summit of Mount Washington. It was an incredible event, and a test of both observer mettle as well as equipment on the rime-shrouded peak. The event hit home the importance of maintaining a manned