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2007-05-03 13:16:38.000 – Kyle Paddleford,  Meteorologist

Lenticulars

It was a tight squeeze fitting into the snowcat during shift change yesterday. Additional staff members, tools, and supplies needed to get to the summit after a few attempts in April were foiled due to snow storms and undermined snow on the Auto Road. The extra crew stayed overnight, and after a long day of hard work, they were treated to a wonderful dinner prepared by Katherine MacDonald, our volunteer for the week. Mother Nature then treated us all to a sky full of lenticulars and nice sunset for dessert.

It is a busy time of year on the summit and the mountain itself as the building nears the date for opening its doors to the public for the summer season. The work that I spoke of in the previous paragraph is going on down in the Observatory’s museum. For those of you that have not heard the news, we are in the process of rearranging, and updating the museum. I will not spoil all of the surprises, but some improvements include a larger retail area and some new visuals. I will say that a lot of careful thought and planning went in to the renovation and things are coming along nicely. Be sure to come up when the building opens and see what our hard work has produced.

We are not the only ones working hard though. I was looking out the window and prepping myself to go out and take the hourly weather observation when I noticed a really small black cloud floating by. Upon further inspection it turned out to actually be a smoke plume from the Cog Railway’s maintenance car. The tracks are buried by a large snowfield almost near the summit that required the workers to begin the daunting task of shoveling out the tracks. The Auto Road has also put in some hard work and will be open up to treeline this weekend. Log onto mtwashingtonautoroad.com for more information.

Kyle Paddleford,  Meteorologist