Seek the Peak 2018!! 2018-07-22 11:32:14.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist      Time for another blog post! Our Seek the Peak event was amazing! Over the last several years during the event, the weather has been, well, questionable. High winds, foggy views, and even precipitation played into what some have called a “more rough than anticipated” hiking experience. But not this year. Not at all. We had a very strong high pressure settled in over the region, with plenty of dry air and light winds to help set up a clear, blue, beautiful day for Seek the Peak.    We

One Cloud to Cover Them All 2018-07-17 07:11:23.000 - Sarah Thunberg, Summit Intern   Every meteorologist has a favorite cloud type, for most people this has something to do with severe weather. I get it, supercells are really cool and exciting and give conditions where you can see really unique clouds like pileus or mammatus. These clouds are too rare and energetic for me. Give me a nice stratus deck any day and I’ll be happy, better yet, layered decks. There’s just something so comforting and peaceful about a smooth ocean of white. A stratus day is a good day.

Where is the Wind this Week? 2018-07-15 18:09:32.000 - Griffin Mooers, Summit Intern   The Mount Washington Observatory’s claim to fame has long centered on wind, with the observatory seeing the highest wind gust ever (recorded by man) at 231 mph on April 12th, 1934. And at an average annual wind speed of 35 mph, the observatory has the highest average wind of any station in North America. And it’s personally given me by far the strongest wind’s I’ve experience in my life, with gust’s over 90 miles an hour on previous shifts. But so far this shift, the mountain

Mount Washington Sunsets 2018-07-14 18:19:23.000 - Simon Wachholz, Summit Intern   When I woke up 5am Wednesday morning for shift change, my first thought was that I couldn’t wait until my next off week so I could finally sleep in. Once I got back to the top, however, I quickly forgot why I would ever want to leave. The cool air is an amazing reprieve from the summer heat in the valleys and the views of the surrounding towns, forests and mountains are unmatched. Whenever I’m up here, my favorite part of the day is without a doubt sunset. As

'Tis but a Patch! 2018-07-11 07:34:50.000 - Ben Seleb, Summit Intern   Living on a mountain has its ups and downs (literally), and Mt. Washington is no exception to that. Acclimated to our unique and isolated workplace, we often find ourselves captivated by things that other people would think odd. For instance, when we aren’t in the clouds, we have our fair share of spectacular sunrises and sunsets. So many in fact, that after a while they also become commonplace. While we still go out to the observation deck to watch them, we have begun to judge their magnificence more

Special Relativity and Mount Washington 2018-07-09 15:42:43.000 - Emily Tunkel, Summer Intern   Freshman year, second semester, I took a course called “Introduction to Relativity and Quantum Mechanics” in which we discussed an experiment performed by David Frisch and James Smith in 1963. Frisch and Smith were looking to measure the effect of time dilation on mu-meson particles. Time dilation, an effect of special relativity, basically describes what happens if you throw a clock fast enough: It will start to run slow. The factor of this time change is generally pretty small because it relates the object’s velocity to the

Back In The Swing Of Things 2018-07-09 06:38:26.000 - Christopher Hohman, Night Observer   Hi there! My name is Christopher Hohman, and I am the new Night Observer here on the summit of Mount Washington. Some of you may remember me a few years ago as in intern. I thought I’d spend this blog talking about what I’ve done over the past two years, and what it’s been like coming back to the best place on Earth. My internship at the Mount Washington Observatory was one of the best experiences I ever had in my life. I had left the

A Spectacular 4th from the Summit 2018-07-05 07:58:50.000 - Zach Butler, Summit Intern   Being atop Mt. Washington for the 4th of July with clear conditions was an incredible sight. As the sun set, we began to see the first fireworks light off. Small towns and houses began this small show. As the sky became darker, North Conway and Brenton Woods took over the show. Trying to see both sights was quite difficult actually. Running from the observation deck to the south east side of the mountain soon became a workout as I tried to get the best pictures of

A Crash Course in Cyclogenesis and Conveyor Belt Theory 2018-07-02 18:18:05.000 - Sarah Thunberg, Summit Intern   Standing at the base of the mountain Wednesday morning, I was jumping with energy and excitement to get back on the summit this week. It doesn’t take much to get me excited in the first place, but this week was looking promising for storms. The storm that passed Thursday and Friday followed the classic mid-latitude cyclone lifecycle. This particular cyclone was already weakening as it hit New England so we only received a lot of rain and small cells scattered across New Hampshire.

A Year's Worth of Snow In Review 2018-07-01 16:35:30.000 - Simon Wachholz, Summit Intern   At Mount Washington (and other weather sites) the conclusion of June marks the end of our yearly weather season. This is to encompass a complete winter, instead of splitting the winter up at the end of the calendar year. This means that yesterday was the end of the 2017-2018 snow season, and that starting today any snow (or sleet or hail) will count towards the 2018-19 winter season. Rapidly changing weather is something you should expect at the summit of Mount Washington, and this past