Still Winter In Our "Backyard" 2019-04-08 05:49:55.000 - Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist   The acronym “NIMBY” (Not In My BackYard) is typically used for a person that objects to something perceived as unpleasant/dangerous in their local area. However, growing up around Lake Tahoe (CA) I always heard this acronym used to describe the mentality behind the sudden spring slow-down in businesses associated with winter activities like ski resorts, snowmobiling, lodging, restaurants, etc. It didn’t matter if we had enough snow to last us well into June or July, when the Central Valley and Bay Area (where a lot of

The Culprit Behind This Wintry Weather 2019-04-07 12:53:02.000 - Chloe Boehm, Summit Intern   Even though meteorological spring has sprung, the summit has seen its fair share of wintry weather recently with more on its way. Many of the recent precipitation events have not been organized low pressure systems but due to upper level disturbances in the atmosphere. Since this terminology has been common in our forecasts recently, I thought I would take the opportunity to explain a little bit more what it means. When meteorologists talk about the upper levels of the atmosphere, they are usually discussing elevations with

Wind Statistics From Winter 2018-2019 2019-04-05 15:49:02.000 - Thomas Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   It’s been a very memorable winter season, something I’ve mentioned before in past blogs but still can’t really get over is how windy it’s been! I decided to do a little more digging into just how windy this winter of 2018-2019 has been, and also how it stacks up to our all-time records going back to the 1930s. The cherry on top to this winter season has obviously been a new February record wind of 171 mph, but I’ll focus more on the frequency of high

Yay Spring...Just Kidding! April Fools! 2019-04-01 12:24:18.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   Of course, shenanigans were bound to occur this shift with today being April Fools Day. However, while pranking each other is all in good fun, being pranked by the weather certainly hasn’t been. Our shift started very spring-like indeed. On shift change day, we came up to a summit that had been sitting under clear sky conditions for over 20 hours! Temperatures were on the rise, and we actually had wind chills that weren’t below freezing! Our crew was settling into the idea of transitioning out

Looking like spring? 2019-03-29 12:16:48.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   So far this spring it has been a cold one across the higher summits and much of New England. This has largely been due to a big ridge over Alaska that has been pushing the cold air in the arctic down into the eastern half of the continental US. We have only had one large melt out this season so far and temperatures did not even get much above freezing. Now that we are getting close to the end of the month, it is looking like we will

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb? 2019-03-23 20:33:43.000 - Taylor Regan, Weather Observer/Research Specialist   “In like a lion, out like a lamb.” It’s a common saying, and one that is often ascribed to the somewhat tumultuous weather often peppering the month of March. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is often due to the March being the “turning point” between the months of winter and spring. Many times, anecdotes or sayings like these are passed down between generations, stemming from observations made prior to scientific data being readily available. They were passed along to help people understand the

Wild Places 2019-03-23 10:37:51.000 - Bill Ofsiany, Summit Volunteer   I like going outside. I do it every day, often two or three times a day while volunteering on the summit. I call it my “weather fix”. I do it when it’s clear and calm, when it’s foggy, or after dark on a clear night to look at stars and planets. I do it on rainy days, when the precipitation is coming down horizontally, when rime is forming on rocks, signs, and even on my goggles and outerwear, and on days when the wind is roaring and you get pushed

Our First "Spring" Snowstorm! 2019-03-21 09:19:06.000 - Thomas Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   Our first “spring” storm of the season is set to begin across the White Mountains this evening, lasting through most of Saturday. Although we’re officially into astronomical spring as of yesterday, we’ll be observing plenty of wintry weather from this system over the next 48 hours. This will be an interesting system in terms of strength and also the complicated features that are already coming together to make the storm. Two weak areas of low pressure already merged overnight across the Carolinas, with one moving from the

Freezing Fog and Rime Ice; what are they? 2019-03-19 11:53:19.000 - Jay Broccolo, Summit Intern   I’ve recently had a few people ask me what the difference between Freezing Fog and Rime Ice is, or more generally, what each of them is. It can certainly be confusing. The term Freezing Fog intuitively sounds like it is fog that is freezing but in actuality it isn’t freezing at all, at least not yet. The National Weather Service defines Freezing Fog as tiny, supercooled water droplets in fog when air temperatures are below freezing. In fact, it is possible to have supercooled water droplets suspended in

Trip Season coming to an End 2019-03-17 17:14:47.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   As we head into mid-March, our winter trip season is coming to an end. This year has been really fun with all the groups that have come up to spend time with the summit staff and learn about what we do. This year many of the trips got very lucky seeing a variety of weather from magnificent sunrises to howling winds, topping out at 171 mph for one lucky trip! I would like to thank everyone who came up to the summit this winter and