84 Years Young! 2016-10-16 15:25:51.000 - Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   Yesterday, 10/15/2016 was the 84th Anniversary of the founding of the Mount Washington Observatory. In celebration of 84 great years, we offered free tours of our legendary weather station, with a few hundred people able to enjoy the exceptional weather and learn about the important work we do atop Mount Washington. It was a great experience, and hopefully we shared our enthusiasm with the many visitors to the summit. It’s amazing to be able to continue the work of the original founders of the observatory back in 1932: Alex

Dish-Antenna Ice-Break Installation 2016-10-13 23:18:13.000 - Pete Gagne, IT Specialist   Internet and phone service for the Observatory is accomplished with the use of a pair of microwave dishes – one on the summit tower and the other mounted at the Weather Discovery Center in North Conway. Last winter, during a significant icing event, a large chunk of ice broke free from a neighboring post and smashed into the top of our dish. Luckily, it didn’t completely knock us off-line, but it did momentarily hinder service and caused us to rethink how to better protect the dish from future damages.

A Busy Week on the Summit 2016-10-10 21:35:40.000 - Ben Brownell, Summit Intern   What a busy week it has been on the summit for us here at the observatory! With the fall colors peaking this week and seasonably warm temperatures many people took advantage and came up to come check out the observatory. I have honestly lost track of the number of tours I have given this week, if I had to guess around 20 tours or so. I met a lot of great people who made the trip up the mountain just to come see what we do

Record High Temperatures and Fall Colors 2016-10-07 20:27:20.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Today we have broken our daily record high reaching 57 degrees! The old record high was 56 set back in 1990. Luckily it was a really nice day up on the summit so people could enjoy the fall colors below!  Fall foliage at the base of the Auto Road heading up for shift change  So why have we been so warm over the past couple of weeks? Our average temperature for this time of year is only 33 degrees so we should be seeing freezing

Thank You and Goodbye! 2016-10-05 04:47:52.000 - Michael Dorfman, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   After 4 years as an Intern and Weather Observer with the Mount Washington Observatory, I have decided that it is time to move on. The last few weeks have been very bittersweet, knowing that this wonderful chapter of my life is coming to a close and waiting in anticipation for the next one to open. I have been trying my hardest to take mental pictures of every beautiful moment, storing them in the dusty shoe box that never gets thrown away in the back of my head.

Tracking Hurricane Matthew 2016-10-03 17:12:37.000 - Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   Although it is still nearly 2,000 miles to our south, Hurricane Matthew is looking more and more likely to impact New England and much of the eastern seaboard next weekend. The hurricane is currently located over the Caribbean Sea and moving northward towards Haiti, Jamaica, and eastern Cuba with sustained winds as high as 140 mph. Potentially life threatening conditions will occur over these areas from high winds, storm surge, and flash flooding through Wednesday. Models will continue to come into better agreement over the next few days and

Foliage and Fall Operating Hours 2016-09-30 22:24:54.000 - Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist   Around this time of year, we get several inquiries about foliage and the operating hours of the summit. With these inquires in mind, I thought I’d take a minute to address these two items to better inform you in the days and weeks ahead.   First off, foliage (or “fall color” to some). Peak foliage colors occur at different times around the state and doesn’t uniformly occur on any one day or week. It typically starts in the north and high elevations in early to mid-September

Time Spent on the Summit 2016-09-26 17:45:53.000 - Ben Brownell, Summit Intern   As I am writing this post I am closing in on the end of my second shift on the mountain. Mt. Washington has always been known to me as having severe weather and is not to be taken lightly. Having grown up in the area I have experienced the mountains by hiking in the summer time or skiing Tuckerman’s in the spring.  I never knew much about the weather or how to forecast for that matter.  Fortunately for me the observers on my shift have taken me

Winter is Coming 2016-09-24 13:29:57.000 - Mike Carmon, Senior Weather Observer & Education Specialist   We're currently in the midst of the first significant cold snap of the season. Tonight, we're expecting temperatures to fall to around 20°F on Mount Washington, possibly even dipping into the upper teens. These will be the coldest temperatures experienced on the summit since May 17th—131 days ago—when we hit a daily minimum of 18°F. And yes, a chance of a light snow shower does exist, although it is a remote possibility.  The staff's guesses for our coldest temperature with this cold snap. Our descent

First Snow Storm? 2016-09-22 20:01:41.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT specialist   It will finally be cold enough on the summit this weekend to support the possibility of some snowfall! It has been since June 22 since we have last seen some snowflakes falling on the summit and we will typically see the first snowfall around mid-September and average just over 2 inches of snow in during the month. Last shift I was up we had the first freeze up on the summit with a thin layer of frost that covered everything for a few hours before the sun melted