Brocken Spectre: An Interesting Phenomenon 2016-01-25 12:47:55.000 - Andrew Henry, Summit Intern   A Brocken spectre, sometimes referred to as a Brocken bow or mountain spectre, formed a few shifts back. It was an interesting weather phenomenon I had never seen before. Since the occurrence of the Brocken spectre I have looked into what they are and what conditions cause them to form.   A Brocken spectre is the enormous magnified shadow of an observer cast onto the upper surfaces of clouds opposite the sun. The shadow often appears as a ghostly figure surrounded by halo-like rings of colored light

An Incredible Experience 2016-01-23 16:21:36.000 - Kyle Clauss, Digital News Writer, Boston Magazine      I don’t think I’ve ever met a group of people prouder of the awful weather they endure for eight days at a time than the folks who live and work in the Mt. Washington Observatory. But as relentless as the winds are, and as troublesome the ubiquitous rime ice is for their instruments, the weather yields some of the most breathtaking views of New England, New York, and, albeit faintly, Canada.   A snowcat whisks you—“whisk” might be too strong a word for a 60,000

An Unforgettable Experience 2016-01-19 17:10:22.000 - Sam Webber, Summit Intern   Finally back for the second week of my internship here at the summit observatory, and what an incredible way to start the week off! With forecasts predicting sustained wind speeds of 100 mph and gusts well over that, I think it's safe to say that I'm finally starting to see some of the conditions I have been waiting for! Nothing really gets your blood pumping quite like walking out onto the observatory deck and experiencing some of the most intense weather in the world. However, it was unusually calm

A Near Miss 2016-01-16 14:36:42.000 - Mike Carmon, Co-Director of Summit Operations   The coastal storm system currently producing snowfall across northern New England has failed to live up to some of the higher expectations, primarily across most of the state of NH. It's a situation that's all too common for the northeastern United States—a coastal system develops over the mid-Atlantic and rides northward along the eastern seaboard. "Will the storm produce 1-2 feet of snow? Or just a dusting?" "Computer models are not in full agreement." "Your guess is as good as mine." Hearing these phrases dropped by a

Delayed Shift Change 2016-01-14 19:14:08.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer   Today was an unusual day due to the fact that we had to delay shift change due to poor conditions on the summit yesterday. Driving to the base yesterday to try and head up, I was met with some light snow falling as well as plenty of blowing snow. If conditions were poor at the base we knew it was going to be a tough ride up. We decided to try anyway and headed up with state park because at the time, conditions at the summit were still good

It’s Great to be Back! 2016-01-12 17:29:49.000 - Andrew Henry, Summit Intern   After taking a shift off to visit family and friends for the holidays, I was very excited to return to the rock pile this week. Upon my arrival it was nice to see the summit blanketed in snow and rime ice. It certainly made for beautiful views and after a very warm December with well below average snowfall, the wintry scene was a welcome sight. This week was my first time riding in the Mount Washington Observatory Snow Cat; an experience I had been looking forward to

Off to AMS! 2016-01-10 06:32:23.000 - Mike Dorfman, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   I’m writing this sitting in the Nashville Airport awaiting my flight to New Orleans to attend the American Meteorological Society’s annual conference. I’m very excited to be tabling during the career fair this evening, as well as presenting two posters-one on the past and current research projects utilizing Mount Washington Observatory’s regional mesonet, as well as one detailing our work on the summit of Mount Washington.  I’m really excited and glad I have the opportunity to represent the Observatory at such a huge event! To all of our

Wildcat Mesonet Site Gets Upgrades 2016-01-09 09:57:19.000 - Roger Pushor, IT Specialist   The Wildcat mesonet site has been converted from 12 to 24 volts to help improve power performance and allow us to install a new Axis P5534 720p webcam donated by one of our supporters. We've also reconfigured the solar panels to a 24 volt photovoltaic array and added a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) charge controller, also donated by a generous supporter, for charging the batteries installed during the last week of December. These charge controllers are much more sophisticated than the old Xantrex, are built around

New Year's Eve on the Summit 2016-01-01 11:20:40.000 - Krissy Fraser, Director of Marketing & Events   We rang in the New Year in fine fashion here on the summit of Mount Washington kicking off our winter trips season.  Friends joined us from near and far including Idaho, Texas, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maryland to celebrate the New Year.  We started the day with a smooth snowcat ride piloted by operator extraordinaire Slim Bryant along with Co-Pilot Elissa Gramling.  Some of the guests weren’t quite sure what they were getting themselves into as we wound our way up the Auto

NCON3 Goes Live on the MWObs Mesonet Webpage 2015-12-29 17:37:44.000 - Roger Pushor, IT Specialist   After they finished helping Santa load his sleigh, some of Santa’s Elves were busy over the Christmas weekend getting the new RainWise MKIII-LR Weather Station located at the NCON3 site reporting on our Mesonet Map. RainWise Incorporated of Trenton, Maine, donated their top of the line automatic weather station that uploads temperature, precipitation, wind, barometric pressure and relative humidity data every minute to our Website. You’ll find the information from this site in the lower right corner of the map labeled “WDC” for Weather