Recovering from cold…

2007-03-01 09:17:32.000 – Jim Salge,  Observer

Sunset From the Tucks Trail…

A story and slideshow on the Mount Washington Observatory is on the AP newswire today:
Click here to read it!

March 1st, the end of meteorological winter! The staff today will be working feverously summarizing February’s data, as well as error checking and analyzing. Preliminary looks have this past month ranking number two behind February of 1968 as the coldest of all time, with an average temperature of below -3F. It also looks like, pending more review, that it was the sixth coldest month on record at the summit. Rather amazing turn around from January for sure.

Winds were also a big factor this past month, averaging 52 mph for the month, and gusting above hurricane force 22 of the 28 days. We are also seeing how this ranks compared to other February’s, but having endured this past month, it FELT historic!

Since Sunday though, the weather has been significantly moderated, and after arriving on shift to the best summit conditions I’ve experienced since mid January, I took off for a hike. Snow conditions were varied for sure. On the trails, snow was packed down, and largely bare-bootable, though I wore crampons. Off the trail, unconsolidated snow made for miserable trekking in the lee spots, as my boots would suddenly disappear into 3 feet of snow. This potentially knee tweaking situation limited my options for shooting sunset, but I think it all worked out.

Eyes are now on a deteriorating weather pattern over the next twelve hours, in which clear skies and 120 mile visibility will give way to (hopefully) heavy snow! And with warmer temperatures, hopes are high that some of this snow will stick around on the summit cone this time!

Jim Salge,  Observer