Warmth Returns

2012-04-16 23:22:37.000 – Brian Clark,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist

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This winter has been my 6th winter season spent working on the mountain, and in all that time, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly the summit can change ‘faces. In other words, how quickly it can go from mid-winter conditions one day to mid-summer the next, or vice versa. This can be especially true during transition seasons. This change of ‘faces’ has certainly occurred in very dramatic fashion over the last 24 to 36 hours.

I wrote a few days ago about how impressive the changes have been this month with the 30+ inches of snow we have seen. Now the changes are impressive in the other direction. Temperatures rose above freezing late on Saturday night and have continued to rise until this afternoon, spiking at a new daily record of 57 degrees. This surpassed the previous record high for April 16 of 55 degrees, which was set in 2002. At each observation I did last night (I’m working nights while Ryan is on vacation) there was noticeably less snow on the observation deck. While I slept today, the higher angle of the spring sun went a long way to continue that melting, and when I did my first observation at 6 this evening, there was only one lonely snow pile left by the thermoshack. Even that will be surely be gone in the next couple of hours.

This current heat wave, of sorts, won’t last nearly as long as the one in March did though. As I write this, a cold front is approaching that, once it passes, will send temperatures back to more seasonable levels by Wednesday. In the meantime, I suppose I will make the best of it and enjoy doing my observations without a jacket!

Brian Clark,  Weather Observer/Education Specialist