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

Skew-T Plots 2016-09-19 07:06:26.000 - Taylor Regan, Summit Intern   There’s never a shortage of things to learn on the summit. Due in part to Mt. Washington’s location and surrounding topography, this mountain is ideally situated, and those living on the summit, uniquely fortunate, to experience some very exciting and very extreme weather phenomena. Predicting weather is no easy task, nor, one could argue, is observing it, on the summit of New Hampshire’s tallest peak. So, what sort of tools are used by meteorologists and observers in order to get a better handle on just what the atmosphere is up

Talking about Turbulence 2016-09-17 17:02:22.000 - Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   While talking with intern Taylor a bit about the weather today, she brought up a simple, yet very complex question: why do we see wind gusts? The short answer is turbulence, but what makes the air and our wind turbulent gets more complicated. We live beneath an ocean of air that makes up our atmosphere, with all of this air constantly flowing over the terrain features that make up the surface. Mountains, lakes, forests, fields, etc. are all constantly altering the air immediately above by often slowing it down

Strong Winds and Lightning 2016-09-11 18:26:10.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Today was one of those days that makes it really exciting, and sometimes stressful, to work here. This morning when I woke up, there was lighter winds than I was expecting and the storm was much further north than what was forecasted. I was bummed we may not see high winds. Things started changing when severe thunderstorm warnings began being issued in Vermont with a nice squall line marching toward the summit. Eventually a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for the summit along with much of the

High Winds on the Horizon 2016-09-09 13:33:07.000 - Mike Carmon, Senior Weather Observer & Education Specialist   Now that we've turned the calendar into September, signs of the impending winter are starting to appear in the computer forecast models. September is by no means considered winter for us, but on average, the weather begins to take a decided turn that direction during this ninth month of the year on Mount Washington's summit. For instance, August's average monthly temperature is 48.1°F, while September's monthly average plummets to 41.6°F. While the lowest temperature ever recorded (since MWO started gathering data in 1932)

Three Common Questions & Answers 2016-09-07 04:56:23.000 - Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist   Over the past week, we have been getting several emails, social media messages, and comments inquiring about three common things: operating hours, nights above treeline, and the Aurora Borealis. I always heard in college, "If you have a question, ask it out loud because odds are someone else in class is wondering the same thing and just not speaking up." So, if we are getting these inquires over and over again, odds are, several other people are wondering the same thing but just not asking.  So

A Busy Weekend on the Summit! 2016-09-05 18:05:22.000 - Michael Dorfman, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   Summer is beginning to slowly blend into fall as the upper 50 degree temperature range slowly slips out of normalcy here on the summit! We are even starting to see patches of yellow in the valley, although the drought in the area may be playing a role in some premature turning of leaves. Labor Day Weekend, one of the summit’s biggest weekends of the summer and always an indicator that fall is on its way, has come and gone. Fall is a dangerous time of

Tropical Storm Hermine 2016-09-03 16:42:06.000 - Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Meteorologist   Although the impacts on northern New England may turn out to be minimal, Tropical Storm Hermine has been very interesting to watch develop and is still an ongoing challenge for forecasters as of this writing. The storm is expected to strengthen overnight even though it has now lost its tropical characteristics due to interactions with an upper level system diving south out of the Great Lakes. As the storm stalls south of Long Island, NY a prolonged period of high surf and coastal flooding will be likely from the