TechWomen TechGirls Event 2016-12-09 16:59:42.000 - Taylor Regan, Observer   A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak at a TechWomen Ambassadors Week event held at the White Mountain Community College campus in Berlin, NH. The event, titled “STEMspiration – inspiring girls to explore STEM careers” targeted 9th grade girls in the region, and hosted a variety of speakers to share their career experiences and show a variety of possible paths available in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics based fields (STEM). This is the second year the Observatory was asked to present, and it was a great experience! After

An Exceptionally Snowy Start to December 2016-12-05 08:57:02.000 - Mike Carmon, Senior Weather Observer & Education Specialist   December 1st is the first official day of meteorological winter. Generally speaking, winter on Mount Washington is considered to begin much earlier than this—back in October. Although we had seen a few minor snow events throughout the months of October and November, a switch seems to have flipped once the calendar turned the page to the month of December 2016. Since Thursday, December 1st, we’ve received a total of 21.3" of snowfall…and counting, as another round of snowfall has just commenced as

Wrapping Up November 2016-12-03 14:14:02.000 - Caleb Meute, Weather Observer & Staff Meteorologist   So far, for the month of December, the summit of Mount Washington has not received a single ray of sunshine. While this is shocking considering we are already two full days into the month, the trend even continues back into November. November 30th saw a substantial 21 out of the possible 561 sunshine minutes, and another disappointing sunshine minute performance was experienced on the 29th with a goose egg of zero minutes observed. Yeah, understandably on the 28th, 88% of sunshine minutes were observed, but I

Dear Santa... 2016-12-01 07:22:04.000 - Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist   Dear Santa-   Another year already, where does the time go!? Hope all is well at the North Pole and the elves are putting the final touches on your “Nice List.” I hope we land on your “Nice” list once again this year…   I like to think that we acted kindly and respectfully to all our interns, guests, friends, families and pet (Marty Kitty). By the way, Marty sends his regards – he’s looking forward to the special treats, litter and food you traditionally bring him. We are

80 Years of Climatology at the Top of New England 2016-11-29 13:36:27.000 - Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   With over 80 years of history in weather observation at the summit, the Mount Washington Observatory has not only provided valuable real-time data for weather prediction and forecasting, but also provides an important record of the longer term climate of this very unique place. I’m happy to announce our 80 year annual temperature record, from 1935-2015, is now available for public view here on our website! Our main goals with making this information public is to hopefully get people more engaged with our

Will it Snow? Will it Rain? 2016-11-27 14:25:59.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/ IT Specialist   This upcoming week is looking very interesting weather wise. A big storm is going to be forming in the lee of the Rocky Mountains and form into a large storm in the upper Midwest. Right now, it looks like it is going to stall over the North Dakota and Minnesota border and bring a bunch of snow and wind to western ND and northwestern SD. This storm will help move a bunch of energy up from the Gulf of Mexico toward the North East.

Thanksgiving atop the Rockpile 2016-11-24 19:54:30.000 - Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   Working on the summit for Thanksgiving can be tough to be away from friends and family, but it helps to put things into perspective as to what I’m thankful for and makes me appreciate all the steps that led me to living and working atop this very special place. I’m very thankful for all the support and love over the years of my family, who have helped me pursue my career in meteorology and my passion for the weather. The Mount Washington Observatory just turned 84 years old

NASA GOES-R Satellite Launch and What This Means for Weather Forecasting 2016-11-22 11:25:14.000 - Ben Brownell, Summit Intern   You may have heard that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) successfully sent a new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite into space this past Saturday. NASA provided excellent coverage of this launch with several Facebook live sessions. I highly suggest next time there is a launch that you check out their social media platforms for an inside peak into one of our nation’s best resources. Figure 1: GOES-R satellite launch  The satellite launched was called the GOES-R, which stands for Geostationary

What’s up with this Heat? 2016-11-20 12:36:52.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Both Friday and Saturday we set new record highs of 48 on Friday and then 49 on Saturday. The previous records for these dates were 46 on Friday (Set in 1958 and tied in 1994) and 45 on Saturday (Set in 1957 and tied in 1985). Both of these events we broke the previous records by multiple degrees which is an impressive margin, in fact Saturday broke the record by 4 degrees! Another interesting tidbit was that it was 48 degrees at midnight on Friday so

A 50-Degree Swing 2016-11-17 14:02:52.000 - Mike Carmon, Senior Weather Observer & Education Specialist   Fall 2016 continues to be a chaotic one in New England, and another abrupt change is on the way—perhaps one of the most extreme of the season yet! A strong ridge of high pressure centered over the southeastern United States will build into New England today through the weekend, bringing with it some extremely warm temperatures to the White Mountains region. Due to the very warm flow of air with this ridge, high temperatures on the summit of Mount Washington will be pushing 50°F tomorrow