NULL 2006-05-04 05:23:56.000 - Jim Salge,  Observer The washout that swallowed the truck... The onset of spring has been sneaking up on the summit for a month or so, but the true onslaught of what spring means to the mountain was unleashed in the past 36 hours. Over two inches of rain plus significant melt water came pouring off the summit on Tuesday and Wednesday causing all kinds of havoc. The incredibly dense ice that formed around the building this winter has formed numerous ice dams, and the runoff has decided that it's easier to find a way through concrete

NULL 2006-05-03 06:26:22.000 - Brian Clark,  Summit Intern Filtered sunset They say “all good things must come to an end”, and while I don’t necessarily think this to always be true, this saying certainly holds in this case. Today is the final day of my tenure as a winter intern with the Observatory. It seems like January 4th, my first day on the mountain was just yesterday and the excitement of the unknown and the coming winter was upon me. Time certainly does fly when you’re having fun.Of course my internship wasn’t all about fun, even if there was plenty

NULL 2006-05-01 05:03:29.000 - Neil Lareau,  Observer Happiness! May: As the calendar changed last night I was reminded of May last year. More specifically, I was reminded of the end of May; A period that played host to 154 consecutive hours of east winds. East winds this time of year on the summit usually mean a couple of things. They mean cold ocean moisture banking against the mountains, they can mean heavy precipitation, they can mean heavy icing, and they can mean the dreaded wintry mix of precipitation as temperatures hover near freezing. Such was the case last year, and

NULL 2006-04-30 07:19:18.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Observer View of blue skies with all the foot prints of hik The most common word on the summit over the last few days has been 'Amazing.' The weather conditions: amazing. The views we have been having: amazing. The amount of hikers the summit has received: amazing. Each time that I went outside between the hours of 10 am to about 2 pm, there was at least 10 to 20 hikers standing on the deck or on the rock pile of a summit. But with the weather like it was this weekend, it was

NULL 2006-04-28 05:21:53.000 - Neil Lareau,  Observer Sunset Stepping out the door for the 1245EST synoptic observation and glancing north there was an unmistakable green arc across the horizon: The aurora borealis. It was much like many that I’ve seen from the summit, mostly a green haze but at times coalescing into crisper lines and columns. Letting my eyes slowly adjust, increasing detail became visible. Then, at times, the display would nearly disappear. What I find amazing is how quickly it can change but how subtle those changes feel. Nothing is abrupt, just quick. In a way it is actually

NULL 2006-04-27 06:46:33.000 - Neil Lareau,  Observer NULL The clouds have broken this morning allowing the early light access to last night’s fresh snow fall. It is quite lovely. Yesterday: Skiing the snowfields is always a good way to get a sense for what is going on across the mountain. Since they are in a strong lee area, hence the large deposits of snow, they also seem to collect various detritus. Here and there are blades of sedge torn from the carpets above the Great Gulf. The spiders that I saw the other day can now be occasionally found frozen

NULL 2006-04-25 10:18:00.000 - The Summit Crew,  Mount Washington Observatory NULL It has taken over a year of planning and construction, but today marks the first full day of the Mount Washington Observatory’s new and improved webpage! There is so much new and exciting stuff to talk about, we don't know where to begin.Maybe it's the meteorologist in us, but we am thrilled about the new Weather section of the website. We have added some new and interesting links to this section of the page, and have gotten rid of some of the old. Some key features include: The actual

NULL 2006-04-24 07:46:00.000 - Tim Markle,  Chief Observer Cap Cloud and Freezing Rain A complex weather pattern of three areas of low pressure to our west and one strong area of high pressure to our east has made for some interesting weather atop the summit this past weekend. Clouds spilled into northern New England throughout the day on Saturday, keeping temperatures down. This was not a good thing, as the snow for the Inferno race in Tuckerman Ravine did not have a chance to soften up as it did on Thursday and Friday. Participants found themselves skiing on a very

NULL 2006-04-22 03:25:20.000 - Neil Lareau,  Observer NULL A modest forest fire ignited today on the northwest flanks of Cascade Mountain near Berlin, NH. A plume of smoke has been visible since then as the fire continues burn both uphill and southward. It has been a dry spring and with extremely low humidity today this was an almost predictable event. The saving grace has been light winds. As the sun set, a distinct line of red flames could be seen marking the leading edge of the fire. Now smoke appears to have drained into the Androscoggin Valley obscuring the view

NULL 2006-04-21 04:24:00.000 - Neil Lareau,  Observer Team Work A blood red and waning half moon is rising at this hour just north of the city lights of Portland. It is blurred by a bank of low clouds that pushed in on an east wind overnight. The stars have been stunning all night revealing incredible detail and quantity. On the snow fields yesterday afternoon I observed a number of small spiders in the snow. Some of them were curled upon themselves and others more active. These did not appear to be the same wolf spiders that scurry about the rocks