Summer Internship Highlights

By Jacob Garside

I’m back again! This summer has flown by and I can’t believe this internship is already over. For those of you just joining, my name is Jacob Garside, and I am one of the summer interns here on the summit. As a background, I’ve been entranced with Mount Washington and the observatory since I was a kid, and now that the internship is closing up I can express just how obsessed I am without being embarrassed! I first applied to this internship as a sophomore or junior in high school. I had no meteorology experience, but I figured the more times they saw my name the better chance I had. I applied on and off a few times until this year when I got an email back. I was offered a chance to interview, and after a stressful interview, I got an offer letter. I was ecstatic and emailed back within the minute accepting the job. That leads to this summer!

This summer has been a busy one, and certainly didn’t feel like the summers I’m used to! It’s been nice and cool here on the summit, feeling more like fall or spring. Josh (the other intern) and I have made the best out of it though and we’ve met some interesting people and made some great friends with all the staff at the Observatory. It has been such a great learning experience and has set me up well to head back to Plymouth State for the last two years of my meteorology degree. I was able to see so many things I’ve only learned about in classes, and I have so much more operational knowledge to take with me. From forecasting and recording those forecasts, learning how to use a sling psychrometer, and committing to memory facts about the Observatory for tours, I’ve come away with loads of knowledge that will help me this upcoming semester.

My first few weeks on the summit consisted of getting my footing, choosing and starting a project, and learning as much as I could. Josh and I decided to work on a joint project, looking at the effectiveness of three different weather model variants called MOS (Model Output Statistics). Josh took care of the verification and computer heavy part of the project (and I am eternally grateful for that), and I was in charge of the case studies that came with it. We were able to take the largest errors for five different variables and analyze the weather on those days to try to find out what was causing such large errors. This was done in hopes of helping observers make more accurate forecasts based on the biases and errors we found. 

I’ve also been able to have a lot of fun at the summit, which has been imperative to being productive on our project. Some of my favorite memories from this summer include waking up to rime ice in the middle of summer; it was like a snow day when I was a kid. Josh and I had a blast running around pretending to be observers and deicing random objects. Another good memory was the 105 mph gust I got to experience, standing outside in my neon orange rainsuit being pelted by rain that felt like bullets, the roar of the wind seemingly muting my own roaring laughter I had thrown back at it. The wind on the summit is both beautiful and terrifying; it feels so amazing to be supported by air as you lean into it, but it can also pull the breath out of your lungs and knock you off your feet in seconds.

Just this week we were able to see the aurora to our north; I’ve never seen one before and it was such a stunning event. I was woken up near midnight and rolled out of bed, threw on a jacket, and headed outside. I remember pausing at the door before I went out to see the lights. What would they be like? I couldn’t even imagine it, so I stepped outside and found out. They were beautiful, and as my eyes adjusted they got so much better. So many amazing memories have been made here on the summit this summer.

Weather aside, the people have been amazing. I’ve made some lifelong friends, shared many stories over dinner, and made connections I’ll cherish for years to come. We had so many lovely volunteers who made delicious food and shared life advice, some of whom woke up incredibly early to make sure we had breakfast waiting for us when we got up at 6 am (thanks John!). Whether it was taking hikes with our State Park friends, a walk with our volunteers for the week, or taking an intern nap at Goofers Point together. The hut croo at Lakes in the Clouds welcomed us with open arms, and we spent a night with them playing games and watching the chaos of hut life. They even let me work the desk for a little while under strict supervision! We also took a swim in the lake next to the hut, which was incredibly cold.

Getting to know all of the observers has been fantastic, each of them bringing another element to the table. I had known of these observers for a long time; I held them in my mind as most people do celebrities, and it was crazy to meet them in the flesh and live with them all summer. Francis and Karl were on the summit during the -47F storm in February of 2023, and I vividly remember meeting them for the first time around a month after that. I was giddy to ask them what it was like, and likely asked way too many questions. I met both Karl and Francis individually after that, and they can both attest that I was a huge fanboy. I almost asked Karl for an autograph in one of those instances. Meeting Ryan Knapp was also a dream come true. I had followed him on some social media platforms for years, and to meet him face to face was shocking. He had long served as an inspiration and someone to look up to, and I was so excited to meet him. Ryan was apprehensive to my excited bursts of energy and nonstop talking, which made sense seeing as he had seen hundreds of interns come and go during his almost 20 year tenure here on the summit. It took more than a few weeks to break through to Ryan, but these last couple of weeks have been a blast. Don’t tell anyone, but Ryan might be my favorite here at the Observatory (second to Nimbus of course).

Lastly, I had an amazing friend at my side the entire internship, and I don’t know what I would have done without him. Josh is my fellow intern, and he is easily one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. He is incredibly kindhearted and spent more than his fair share of time explaining concepts to me. He is an incredibly hard worker and was always spouting off some random factoid or new word he learned. We spent almost this entire internship by each others side. We wake up together, go on hikes together, and have spent copious amounts of time sitting at Goofers Point overlooking the southern Presidentials. Josh, likely without knowing, set a bar for me to try to rise to. I had little to no research experience, and this was a huge step forward in improving my ability to complete a research project. Couldn’t have done it without you buddy.

In summary, this internship was incredible. I was able to learn so much, meet amazing people, and live out an experience I never thought I would have. I’m so excited to see where this helps me go, and I can’t wait to come to visit in the winter. Thanks MWOBS!

To learn more about Jacob and Josh’s MOS (Model Output Statistics) research on Model Output Statistics, visit https://mountwashington.org/research/intern-research-projects/.