weather shifts

2010-09-24 23:09:25.000 – Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist

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Good weather shift vs. Bad weather shift!
The battle continues…

It’s a timeless struggle between the two factions of individuals that call this mountain home on opposing weeks.

On one side of the fence, there lies the good weather shift. Sunnier days, less fog, and calmer winds generally characterize a better part of this group’s time on the rockpile. To them, the moniker ‘home of the world’s worst weather’ seems more in line with a misnomer, as they ponder, ‘when, oh when, will we experience the wild winter weather with which this mountain wields its will?’

Jump to the opposite week, and one will find the bad weather shift. This infamous mountain looms as a foreboding presence to these individuals, harboring awe-inspiring power as its hurricane force winds, blowing snow, and tenacious fog more frequently plague their work weeks. They have become all but cabin-fevered creatures of the night, as relentlessly brutal weather and lack of sunshine shroud the mountain in an aura of mystery and austerity.

The most fantastic part about this perpetual feud is the line of thought behind which of the above is considered the preferred camp. If you can wrap your head around this, the bad weather shift is considered by almost every staff member to be the chosen faction. The logic? You can call a large majority of us weather nerds, and bear witness to our mouths water at the mere fleeting possibility of violent weather that would send most of the rest of the world fleeing the opposite direction. As for the non-weather nerds, well, they certainly did not journey to Mt. Washington utterly ignorant of the dangers it harbors.

As this is not nearly the first time this situation has been discussed, and as I’m completely certain that it will not be the last, all of you faithful followers are exceptionally familiar with this ongoing debate. In turn, an update on the current state of shift affairs is my genuine motivation for these comments today.

I could sit here behind this cozy computer screen and grace you with an endless list of manipulated statistics in an effort to finagle each shift into a category. The truth is, however, that the titles are currently up for grabs. There have been no consistent yet opposing trends between the shifts, so all of us mountain-dwellers are patiently standing by to witness what weather this volatile mount wishes to bestow upon each of us. As a severe weather enthusiast and one that joined the staff to witness the infamous temperament of Mt. Washington, I fully hope that my cohorts and I are granted the honor of the bad weather shift this winter. No hard feelings to my fellow observers on the other shift, but we’ll be sure to take good pictures!

Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist