NULL

2006-03-15 15:34:47.000 – Jim Salge,  Observer

Freeze…Thaw….Freeze…

I returned to the summit on shift change day much the way I remember leaving it two weeks ago… Temps around 0F, winds around 100mph, visibility around 0FT! There has certainly been a myriad of weather in between, and only in the past 24 hours has the summit returned to the cyclical starting point.

Yesterday’s cold front brought about an inch of rain to the summits, along with very mild temperatures from summit to valley. Temps at the top jumped to 41 degrees, and the floor of Tuckerman Ravine hit 50! Just another thaw in the endless freeze/thaw cycle that we have been stuck in all winter.

My vantage during the cold front’s passage yesterday though was from in Pinkham Notch, where runoff swelled the rivers and blew out much of the ice on the streams. The picture at right shows Glen Ellis Falls, prematurely free of its winter ice coat.

Late yesterday afternoon the snow began in the notch (amazingly first while still 44F degrees), and soon after it was also snowing on the summits, which brings us to today. Blowing snow made for slow travel up the road, but the snowcat operator made quick work of the new drifts. Winds have reached 109mph since I arrived and windchills hover in the -30s. This new cold pattern looks to hold for some time now, and upslope snow showers should quickly catch our snow totals up in this statistically snowiest month on Mount Washington!

Jim Salge,  Observer