Best Day Ever, Part 2:Sandy's Little Brother 2017-11-04 16:27:15.000 - Nicole Tallman, Summit Intern   Let’s take it back to October 29th, 2012. I was a few years younger but equally as passionate about the weather. As a high school senior the top thing on my mind when I heard about Hurricane Sandy was the possibility for school closing. I was very excited to get a break from classes and get to relax at home, but I was ignorant of how powerful this storm was going to be. Hurricane Sandy drove right into the coast of New Jersey, the state

Best Day Ever, Part 1: An Irrational Pi Day 2017-11-03 09:12:58.000 - Mike Carmon, Senior Meteorologist & Education Specialist   It can be remarkably difficult to pinpoint one's most memorable experience in a place teeming with endless opportunities for once-in-lifetime events. Occasionally I’ll say to myself "I should seriously catalog these memories somehow," but in the same manner as these events pertain to, these thoughts are fleeting and become amalgamated in a haze of similar situations. Nevertheless, there are certainly a few weather events that stick out from the rest of the pack as far as their notoriety, and the

Your Body as a Weather Instrument 2017-10-29 11:02:49.000 - Bill Ofsiany, Summit Volunteer   I love this time of year. The leaves are mostly gone, as are the crowds and bugs. It is the time of year that the weather instrument that we know best, becomes evident: our body. The first hint of cold weather you might experience something called vasomotor rhinitis. When cool or cold air hits your eye, a gland above and to the side of the eye starts producing more tears, that flood into a canal that drains into the nose, and stuffs it up. You will

Wishful Thinking...Rhyme (Rime) Time on the Rockpile 2017-10-26 10:55:02.000 - Bill Ofsiany, Summit Volunteer   This time of year, the days get short; the cold begins to bite, The fog that last month, wet the rocks, now covers it all with white.   Wind and cold and fog; so common all the time, Now changes the face of the summit, and coats everything with rime.   The summit looks otherworldly, as tentacles of rime start to grow, Straight into the wind, like ice sculptures, but almost as soft as snow,   Or something very much like it, that forms as

Understanding Dew Point 2017-10-25 16:34:32.000 - Taylor Regan, Weather Observer   Every hour, on the hour, a weather observer atop the summit of Mount Washington steps outside and begins a weather observation. Sky cover, wind speed, visibility, temperature, dew point, all this information is gathered together and stored both in our records as well as sent off to the National Weather Service to be incorporated into weather models. While most of these variables are fairly self-explanatory, one of them requires a little further investigation. Can you guess which one I’m talking about? As a hint, it is largely responsible for

Obs Life Off-Summit, Part 4: Dream One Size Too Big 2017-10-24 15:37:39.000 - Nicole Tallman, Summit Intern   I have always dreamed of the weather. My safe place was curled up in a blanket, watching lightning illuminate the sky. I was not like most other people who shy away from the extremes; but rather I would be drawn closer to them, peering out the window at their beauty. Pursuing meteorology is what felt right. I learned more and more about the dynamics of how storms are formed, what conditions are favorable for what. However, my 4 years in school drew

Obs Life Off-Summit, Part 3: More Work! 2017-10-23 08:06:45.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   The Observatory has for a long time been something I was fascinated with. The first time I learned about Mt. Washington was while watching this old TV show called the Voyage of the Mimi. There was a short clip that was done on the summit and I thought it was the coolest job ever. Ever since then, being a big fan of the weather channel growing up, I would see clips of the storms up here and decided that I would need to at

Obs Life Off-Summit, Part 2: Cherish Every Moment, Everywhere and be Persistent 2017-10-21 17:09:11.000 - Caleb Meute, Weather Observer / Meteorologist   For me, Mount Washington was the place I could go where extreme weather would never miss me. Growing up in southeastern Pennsylvania, I was cursed by the “Weather Man” curse. All too frequently, storms would be heading for my town and a last second shift in the track would leave me wearing sunglasses and a frown. Then college happened and there were too many aspiring meteorologists in a small area, and the trend continued. I was the typical

Obs Life Off-Summit, Part I: Suburban to Sub-Alpine 2017-10-18 17:20:46.000 - Mike Carmon, Senior Meteorologist & Education Specialist   Time passes in a whole different manner up here at 6,288 feet. Perhaps it's the 20% less oxygen, although that might mean residents of Denver, Colorado would be empathizing more often. On the contrary, the week on/week off routine gives the word schedule a new meaning, although any summit staffer would refer to it as more of a lifestyle than a schedule. The fog-ridden world of an observer gives ample opportunity for regular periods of introspective inner-dialogue, particularly when the hustle-and-bustle

The North Atlantic Oscillation 2017-10-16 17:43:15.000 - Taylor Regan, Weather Observer   Last night, during our live forecast discussion on Facebook, we were asked a question about the North Atlantic Oscillation, or NAO. So, what is the NAO, and why is relevant to our weather discussion? To understand the NAO we need to first take a look at the atmosphere, particularly over the North Atlantic Ocean. Here, an area of permanent low pressure sits over Iceland (known as the Icelandic Low or Subpolar Low), and an area of high pressure sits over the Azores (known as the Azores High or