Learning From The Best

2015-03-06 19:52:36.000 – Adam Freierman, Summit Intern

My main objective for my eight or so weeks that I will spend as an intern here at the Observatory is to learn as much as I can about meteorology. Spending time every day studying models and working on forecasts I end up with a lot of questions about what I’m seeing. Sometimes I can get answers by reading discussions written by our night observers, or ones put out by the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. Other questions are better solved by reading through books we have in our office or using internet resources my coworkers have showed me. But by far the best place to turn is to the observers themselves.

Most of the observers, having gone to school for meteorology, have an outstanding technical background to draw from. And they all began their time with the Observatory as interns, so they can relate to problems I am encountering. This week Mike Carmon, a longtime observer currently serving as Director of Summit Observations, is with us on the summit, and today I had the good fortune to listen to him practice a presentation he is giving (remotely) tomorrow at Tin Mountain Conservation Center. His talk focused on mountain meteorology, map reading, and forecasting, and really helped me tie together a lot of the concepts I have been learning over the past 2 months.

Mike will be giving this talk tomorrow as part of a full day Winter Weather Workshop offered by the Observatory and hosted by Tin Mountain. Several other educational staff members will be covering additional topics in the classroom and out in the field. The event starts at 9am but if you get on it early you might still be able to reserve a spot. Check out http://www.tinmountain.org/event/adult-nature-course-weather-of-the-mount-washington-valley/ for more information, and be sure to watch our website and facebook for more opportunities like this is the future, because these guys know what they’re talking about!

Adam Freierman, Summit Intern