Living the High Life on Mount Washington

By Mees Franssen

Hello, my name is Mees Franssen and I am one of the new MWOBS summit interns! I’m a recent graduate from McGill University, where I got a BSc in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. I’ve been wanting to come down to the White Mountains for the longest time, and I am super excited to finally be here.

I was lucky enough to grow up all over the world. Finding homes along the Gulf of Mexico, Egypt, the tropics of South East Asia and the Middle East. This has given me great perspectives on places, cultures and, of course, weather! Having experienced my fair share of tropical cyclones, sand storms, and blizzards, I must say I don’t think there is any weather more exhilarating than what is found on Mount Washington.

Our first clear day! The ski mask is hiding my wide grin, happy to see the sun again!

Braving 120 mph wind gusts, we rode up in the snowcat to arrive at the moonscape that is the summit. Immersed in fog and rime ice, I felt right at home in the cozy living quarters, helped of course by the incredible volunteers Ken and Mei. Their wonderful personalities and delicious cooking make adjusting to living up here much easier! Right from the get-go we were briefed on taking observations, doing radio calls, completing forecasts, and getting our research projects up and running. Work days on the summit are long, but they are also incredibly fun and rewarding.

My first radio call, if you can’t tell I am slightly nervous.

Throughout this internship, I will be researching Mount Washington’s near-surface lapse rate (how the temperature near the surface changes as you go up in elevation). Particularly, taking a closer look at how it varies daily and seasonally, and any interesting interactions the higher summits may be having with the valley below. MWOBS has compiled, as far as I can tell, one of the highest resolution and most complete datasets for near-surface lapse rate research; so it is an awesome privilege to get to use it during my internship. I’m looking forward to sharing some results with all of you later!

For now though, my time will be filled with more observations and forecasts, and appreciating the sunny weather when it’s here. I’m excited for everything still to come in this internship. Till next time!

The fog lifting means I can finally see the rest of the summit, nice!