The Air is Different Up Here 2018-08-23 15:30:21.000 - Eric P. Kelsey, Ph.D., Director of Research   If you have been to the summit of Mount Washington, you likely noticed that the air was different than in the valleys: the temperature was cooler, you may have been in a cloud, and you may have noticed with your eyes and olfactory that the air was more or less hazy and polluted. If you thought that you were in a different air mass than in the valleys, you were probably right. For many decades, we have known that the summit of Mount

Goodbye MWObs! 2018-08-22 08:05:13.000 - Emily Tunkel, Summer Intern   Goodbye MWObs! Well, it certainly has been a fantastic six week internship here on top of Mount Washington, but I unfortunately need to get back to college. Overall, this internship has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience, in more ways than one; my university doesn’t have any degrees or courses in meteorology or atmospheric sciences, so I never got to be introduced to the amazing science behind the weather that we see every day. I didn’t know when starting here how invested I could become in the weather. Looking outside to see

What are the Chances? 2018-08-21 17:31:40.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Since we are known for very volatile weather, especially in winter, I was curious as to when the chances of seeing more extreme weather would start to become more likely. Summertime up here can get start to get quite boring to those of us who are extreme weather enthusiast since the frequency of strong storms are few and far between. At this time of the year, I am starting to look at long range models and climate models wishing for that first snow storm or first 100

What's It Like Being A Night Observer? 2018-08-20 05:31:34.000 - Christopher Hohman, Staff Meteorologist/Observer   One of the most common questions I’ve been asked since taking this job is, “What’s it like working nights?” The answer to that question is rather multi-layered. There’s tons of stuff the night observer is responsible for while they’re on shift, that the day observers don’t normally do, if ever! There’s also a lot of social aspects that are different about it too. I talk about all of it below. (My typical view walking out of the tower to do an observation)  To start out,

My summer at 800 mb 2018-08-16 09:33:01.000 - Simon Wachholz, Summit Intern   In a typical year I would be excited for the end of summer. The cooler temperatures of fall and the first snowflakes of winter are something I look forward to every year. Unfortunately, the end of this summer indicates the end of my time at Mount Washington as a summer intern. Since today is my last day at the summit, I thought I’d write a quick wrap up of all the exciting events I had the opportunity to experience here. Every week seemed to bring a new

Road-Trippin' Through the Seasons 2018-08-15 06:55:18.000 - Taylor Regan, Weather Observer and Research Specialist   Over the river and through the woods, to my summit house I go! It’s the melody that hangs in the ether each week as the upgoing shift amasses at the base of the Mount Washington Auto Road, preparing for their ascent to the place where they simultaneously work and live. It’s quite a sight, if I’m honest, to happen upon a shift change. One by one summit staff navigate through the parking lot in the near pre-dawn hours of morning, small pieces of gravel (and

Don't Make Me Leave! 2018-08-13 15:00:17.000 - Sarah Thunberg, Summit Intern   I’ve dreamed of working up here on Mount Washington my whole life. Now that I’ve been able to live up here, I don’t want to leave! Please don’t make me go! One of my first days on the summit was beautiful and clear, the building wasn’t open to the public yet so it was nice and quiet. I started off my internship taking the classic picture at the summit sign. My first morning on the summit   Not soon after I started on the mountain, I got my

Looking Ahead to Fall 2018-08-12 15:23:23.000 - Griffin Mooers, Summit Intern   As summit observer Adam Gill has previously discussed, summer has been uncharacteristically hot for the summit of Mount Washington, with this past July ranking as the second warmest of all time, with an average temperature a toasty 53.1 degrees Fahrenheit.   Source: http://www.nrcc.cornell.edu   The summer also started out unusually dry. However, frequent showers in the last couple of weeks in favorable peaks helped the White Mountains catch up to an above normal total precipitation for July. But the Northeast as a whole has been unusually dry. Much

Quiet Hurricane Season on the Horizon? 2018-08-10 16:35:16.000 - Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   With the month of August underway we’re heading into the peak of hurricane season, but it’s looking more likely that this year will overall be a down year for tropical systems (not a bad thing necessarily!). So what’s the reasoning for this? NOAA recently updated their seasonal outlook for the tropics (article here) explaining some of their reasoning.    A few of the reasons include already being slightly below average for this point in the season, below average sea surface temperatures across the tropical Atlantic,

The Science of Auroras 2018-08-08 06:18:51.000 - Christopher Hohman, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist   One of my personal favorite weather phenomenon here on the summit of Mount Washington, is one I haven’t actually observed yet! For the past few years I have been incredibly interested with quantum mechanics (A very fancy term that pretty much means the physics of how very small objects, like atoms and their electrons, move and/or interact!) in the atmosphere. A very beautiful phenomenon occurs at the atomic level that really interests me is the Aurora Borealis! In this blog I wanted to give just a brief