Working Nights on the Summit

2014-08-02 23:16:29.000 – Mike Dorfman,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist

Taking a Nighttime Observation

With the famous Mount Washington Observatory meteorologist Ryan Knapp on vacation, I am working nights in his lieu. As a night owl, I love working nights! My shift starts at 8:30 PM and lasting until 8:30 AM, and I take hourly observations, work on data quality checks, change charts, and create a higher summits forecast, among other things. I have to keep my eyes adjusted to the dark, so I change the color of my computer screen to red and use the red fluorescent lights in the weather room. It is amazing the difference it makes-even on hazy days the Milky Way is easily visible to the dark-adjusted eye. If you want to come up and have the chance at seeing the night sky for yourself, we have overnight edutrips and guided climbing trips that spend the night on the summit in the winter.

Observer footnote: Join us next Wednesday, August 6 as we continue our free summer lecture series Science in the Mountains! Next week’s presentation will focus on the seasonal variations of temperature inversions along the Mount Washington Auto Road, and will start at 7PM at the Weather Discovery Center in North Conway. We’ll see you there!

Mike Dorfman,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist