Meet a Few Members of the Summer 2025 Intern Crew

By MWOBS Staff

We are excited to welcome six teammates to the summit of Mount Washington this summer! During their internship, these students and graduates will play a key role in supporting weather observation and data collection, engaging with the public and media and sharing weather information with visitors, and diving into a research project about mountain weather and meteorology. Below, meet three of the six team members as they reflect on their first few weeks on the summit.

Amber Stokes

Hello everyone! My name is Amber Stokes and I am one of the summer interns at Mount Washington Observatory this summer! I am a rising senior undergraduate meteorology student at the University of Delaware, although I was born and raised in Hermon, Maine. I’ve spent many weekends out hiking in Acadia National Park with my family, as well as traveling to other National Parks across the country each summer. It has been quite a long time since I have explored the White Mountains, so I am happy to have been granted the opportunity to spend an extended amount of time here!

The first day here was a clear and beautiful day, with visibility way better than it usually is, and my fellow interns and I were even able to hike halfway to the Lake of the Clouds. With the snow on the trails from the Nor’easter last week, it was definitely a wet and slippery adventure. But, of course, the fog did return. In fact, there was even rime and glaze ice accumulation and recorded 88 mph wind gusts! I will never forget the sound of the night observer Alexis pounding a mallet on the weather tower to clear ice every hour of the night. I even had the chance to bond with resident feline meteorologist Nimbus, who I was able to feed one night and have him sleep on my lap the next.

For my summer research project, I will be looking at the relationship between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and snowfall on Mount Washington, including any changes that have occurred through the decades. I hope to use snowfall data recorded at the observatory along with NAO index records from the NOAA NWS Climate Prediction Center. I would like to distinguish a trend between either NAO +/-  and snowfall intensity to see if climate change has had an impact on these storm’s behaviors. Having the opportunity to do research on a real-life laboratory like the MWObs is a dream come true, and I can’t wait to see what other weather surprises the rest of the summer has in store!

Lucas DelValle

Hello! I am Lucas DelValle, one of the summer interns at Mount Washington Observatory. I am going into my senior year of college at San Jose State University. I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, about 45 minutes east of San Francisco.

I am a huge fan of the outdoors and have become fond of hiking as I live in very hilly terrain with many trails that are easily accessible. Something that I have rarely experienced in my life are snowy conditions, so whenever my family took winter trips to the snow, I would be very excited to have fun in the winter wonderland of the Sierras. My first day on the mountain treated me with about half a foot of accumulated snow, something the other interns and I took in as we hiked for about an hour and a half. Some snow drifts were as deep as two feet! In addition, the views were picturesque with about seventy mile visibility, a rarity on the summit. However, this did not last as the fog came rolling in the next day, bringing the visibility conditions to around what is normally experienced on Mount Washington. Another exhilarating experience was feeling wintry conditions in June. The wind chill dropped to as low as 5° F as gusts topped out at 88 mph! The fellow interns and I were even given the opportunity of de-icing!

I would like to research cumulative snowfall accumulation on the Mount Washington summit. Being a huge fan of the snow, I have always loved viewing snow records and trends, and was surprised to find no cumulative records of the summit! My original idea was to create my own charts showing snow depth over the years, however with the gusty conditions on the summit and inaccurate measurements of the snow depth recordings, that approach was not feasible. Being able to view trends over the last twenty years and determining the reasons behind the different snowfall totals is what I hope to accomplish. With MWOBS having records dating back about ninety years, I am excited to dive in, not only for my research project, but for fun too. I am excited for what summer on the mountain has to offer for me!

Ryan Haas

Hey everyone! My name is Ryan Haas, and I am one of the Mount Washington Observatory summer interns. Believe it or not, my weather journey began with a fear of thunderstorms, but over time, that fear transformed into a passion for understanding our atmosphere and sharing that excitement with others. As an eastern Massachusetts resident who grew up skiing in the White Mountains, I have always heard stories about the extreme weather conditions that frequently batter the Mount Washington summits and they definitely stuck with me. From traveling to the beach during intense winter nor’easters to chasing heavy summer thunderstorms, I have always been enthralled by the power of mother nature, so it is a true honor to get to spend the summer at the home of the world’s worst weather.

For undergrad, I headed south to pursue a meteorology degree at the University of Miami. After four years of sweating and missing the seasons, I moved back up to the Northeast to pursue a master’s degree in applied atmospheric science at the University at Albany, which I just wrapped up a few weeks ago. While in school, I thoroughly enjoyed completing a research project involving Arctic cloud cover climatology and giving hurricane updates in front of the green screen for University of Miami’s student-run television program. During my summer at Mount Washington, I am super excited to gain forecasting experience in such an extreme environment, conduct research on extreme Mount Washington precipitation events and the storm tracks associated with them, and interact with the incredible Mount Washington community.

During our first week at the summit, we experienced no shortage of exciting and unique weather events. We were greeted by the beautiful sight of four inches of snow to start off the summer season. While much of New England experienced heavy rain, the summit resembled an arctic tundra to start off June with snow and rime ice coating the entire observatory. It’s truly amazing to me how a short drive up the Auto Road and a few thousand feet of elevation can transform a late spring rainstorm into a full-blown winter storm with hurricane force wind gusts. To top off an already wild week, the Mount Washington staff was treated to an incredible Northern Lights show on Monday night: Truly the best first week you could ask for. Incredibly excited for what’s to come in the months ahead!