Historical Posts Archives - Page 10 of 378 - Mount Washington Observatory

August 2020

Radar, the Military, and Wan Shi Tong’s Library

2020-08-31 09:15:38.000 – Nate Iannuccillo, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

Last Friday at Cathedral Ledge, my buddy Jon and I sat atop the first pitch of the diagonal on the Mordor Wall, mulling over the weather and assessing our options. We had decided to take a closer look at the weather after noticing the sharp, cool breeze and the building clouds overhead. Thanks to Jon’s radar app on his phone, we were able to confirm our suspicions that rain was on the way, so it turned out to be a nice validation of our meteorological intuition. We figured that we had a few hours at most to complete the route before the rain arrived, and after careful consideration, decided to play it safe and rappel right then and there. In any case, our decision to bail on our original plan started to look pretty good when the rain began a couple hours later, just as the radar suggested. I felt grateful to not be up high on the Mordor wall, where we would’ve been facing a tricky and complicated bailout.

The Mordor Wall, Cathedral Ledge

This made me very thankful for the radar technology that we now have at our fingertips, and it caused me to reflect on the practical applications of radar in society. Radar is an important tool in weather forecasting, and it’s also frequently relied on to ensure safe air and marine travel. My story boils down to recreational use, but I should mention that I routinely use radar at the observatory, and it is a vital tool for assessing in situ weather conditions throughout the region.

Radar, originally an acronym that stands for radio detection and ranging, works by bouncing radio waves off objects prone to reflecting these low frequency electromagnetic waves. After receiving the reflected waves, objects in the sky can be discerned. This is particularly useful when visible light fails us, with radar proving to be particularly useful at night, or when conditions obscure visibility.

The science behind radar was discovered and recognized before World War Two, but the war was largely responsible for the accelerated development and implication of radar technology in the interest of detecting inbound enemy aircraft. I’m sure that this technology would have been developed on its own, but I can’t ignore the fact that throughout history, the United States military as well as others, more often than not seem to be somewhere near the cutting edge of the latest and greatest in science and technology.

Historically speaking, in many cases, the concept of the military advantage often provided the impetus needed to develop new technology, and it reminds me of a segment of the popular television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, where the story’s heroes travel to a mythical library of vast proportion guarded by the spirit Wan Shi Tong, incarnate in the form of a massive barn owl. Wan Shi Tong is rather jaded by humanity, and he proclaims that “humans only bother learning things to get the edge on other humans”. When he discovers that team Avatar’s heroes are there to do just that, he decides to restrict his vast collection of knowledge forever, and sinks his library into the desert sand.

I can’t help but think that this is an extreme view, but maybe not without some truth to it, when I consider the historic interest in science and technology in the name of military superiority. Even looking at Mount Washington, I consider the heightened military presence on the summit during the cold war years, and how the military’s interest in the summit has certainly waned a bit since. And of course, this is by no means unreasonable when considering the circumstances of the cold war. And I should mention that since then, we still do a fair bit of product testing on the summit, putting various new technology through adverse weather conditions, albeit generally for private civilian companies.

I imagine some of these technologies were developed with both utility and financial incentive in mind, and I draw attention to this because I find it rare that science and technology are pursued for their own sake. This seems fair; science and technology are generally looked at as pathways to qualities that might be considered advantageous, whatever they may be. I feel like the important thing to remember is that we continue to approach science and technology with intention, purpose, and mindfulness, and that we keep asking ourselves questions along the way.

Nate Iannuccillo, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

A Glimpse of Cooler Weather

2020-08-24 16:07:36.000 – Nicole Tallman, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

Earlier in this shift, the overnight lows were dipping into the mid-30s. Morning observations were a bit more brisk than what I have been used to since being back on the Rockpile. While Mount Washington never truly gets “hot” the warmer summer conditions have been spoiling me! Recently, when going outside for our hourly observations we can simply walk outside in whatever light jacket we were wearing already. However, the cooler morning observations had me wearing gloves, ear warmers and an extra jacket! It was a nice glimpse into fall conditions and got me excited for colder days ahead.

Figure 1: Nicole Tallman in front of the snowcat before shift change during her internship.

During my internship back in 2017, I was able to experience early winter conditions before my time on the mountain ended in December. Some aspects I am excited to experience again are snowcat rides to the summit, rime ice covering all exposed surfaces and the feeling of having the summit all to myself.

Figure 2: Rime ice covering the side of the Obs tower.

Living on the summit through winter on Mount Washington is like living on another planet. Rime ice covers the observation tower and about everything else touched by the fog. I have two very opposing memories of winter on Mount Washington; the first being violent winds socked in the fog with ice growing at rapid rates, and the other being crisp clear air with 130 mile visibility and calm winds. Both versions of winter are something I look forward to more than anything!

Figure 3: A snowy day in winter!

Summer comes with its perks, one of which being my favorite weather conditions of thunderstorms. However, nothing compares to winter on the summit. I look forward to the higher winds, cooler temperatures and feeling of having the mountain all to yourself. Until then I will get excited with every glimpse into winter that I can get. I may even get another glimpse of cooler conditions tomorrow night!

Nicole Tallman, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

Some Notes on Baking at Altitude

2020-08-17 09:11:30.000 – Nate Iannuccillo, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

A couple weeks ago, during the first installment of the Observatory’s Science in the Mountains series, I mentioned that I had a sourdough starter that I take with me up and down the mountain each week for home baking action on and off the summit. After the program, someone asked how my sourdough starter behaved at altitude, and this question inspired me to share a few thoughts on baking at altitude.

I first started baking bread while working for the Appalachian Mountain Club’s high mountain huts. After my days in the huts, I continued home baking, eventually stepping into the realm of sourdough, and through a series of events, I went on to work at Old Village Bakery in North Conway before working at the observatory. Old Village Bakery is actually owned and operated by former weather observer Mark Ross-Parent, and I certainly recommend checking it out if you’re in the area!

Working with Mark and friends at the bakery was a blast, we baked delicious breads and pastries, drank too much coffee, and watched many a sunrise together. I also learned a lot about the science of baking, and how relevant the atmospheric conditions are to successful baking projects.

In fact, I actually feel like this is one of the most exciting things about baking; there really is a lot of science going once you start paying attention. In this capacity, I see a lot of parallels between successful baking and the meticulousness required of a weather observer. On any given day, I feel that if I want to produce consistent and quality bread, I have to be diligent in terms of my regard for the variables that help frame this process. Some of these variables we can control with relative ease while others prove more challenging. Responding to different environmental conditions is where the baker’s intuition comes into play, and I’ll try to elaborate on this notion in a bit more detail.

To begin, ingredients are weighed and measured with strict precision, something that I would say becomes habitual and fairly straightforward. The first big variable comes into play when considering the desired dough temperature. The temperature of the dough affects the activity of the microorganisms hard at work in the fermentation process, the yeast and lactic acid bacteria, and in turn will affect how quickly the dough rises as well as the bacterial production of lactic acid. Colder temperatures lead to slower rises and more lactic acid produced in the dough, which gives the bread the sour flavors so sought after in sourdough baking. When I bake sourdough, I generally aim for really low dough temperatures and really lengthy rises, in order to sufficiently cultivate these flavors so that I can get a properly sour sourdough.

Without the presence indoor climate control, the main way for the baker to control dough temperature is to regulate the temperature of the water used when mixing the dough. If I’m expecting a hot day, I might respond by using colder water during the mix in order to offset the additional warming effecting the dough.

Humidity also plays a part in this process. Despite frequently exhibiting high relative humidity readings and spending 60% of the year in the fog, the summit is actually a drier climate than the valley. This makes sense when considering the notion of absolute humidity and the much colder temperatures exhibited on the summit. Essentially, the maximum concentration of water vapor in the air is proportional to temperature, so water condenses at a lower concentration on the summit even though the actual concentration of water vapor might be lower than that of the valley.

So what does this have to do with baking?

The main way this comes into play involves mixing, with potentially drier flour requiring additional water to reach the proper dough hydration. So far, I’ve found this to be true, with most of my summit projects requiring additional water in order to achieve the desired consistency. The other thing to be mindful of is the higher rate of evaporation that is often exhibited on dry days, and I’m careful to avoid letting the exterior of the dough dry out both during handling and proofing.

I should mention that this challenge isn’t unique to the summit; the day to day variations in humidity were conditions that I was frequently responding to even at the bakery. Often times on a dry day, if I left the door open, the exterior of the dough might be liable to dry out in minutes if I wasn’t careful…

The last variable I should mention is the difference in atmospheric pressure, a factor that is much more significant when considering altitude. Granted, atmospheric pressure is in constant flux, but daily pressure fluctuations are relatively minor compared to effects of altitude on pressure readings. To try to provide some sense of scale here, the pressure on the summit at any given time is around 200 millibars lower than sea level pressure, whereas daily pressure fluctuations tend to be in the ballpark of 0 to 5 millibars. Because of this, I tend to think that daily pressure tendencies would be rather negligible when considering their effects on baking.

However, when baking on the summit, the much lower air pressure cannot be ignored. What this amounts to is dough rising faster at higher altitudes, and it makes intuitive sense when you think about how there is actually less atmosphere sitting on top of the dough at high elevations.

In turn, I respond to faster rises by aiming for a colder dough temperature, because like I said earlier, I’m usually trying to cultivate sour flavors. Otherwise, there’s nothing inherently wrong or problematic with bread that’s rising faster as long as you’re aware of the changes that are going on. At the bakery, the bread is kept on a timely proofing schedule, where everything from the initial mix, successive folds, and the final shaping times are recorded in advance of the actual bake. This is an essential component to producing consistent bread, and I would say it works quite well, despite a few shifting variables.

When I bake at home, I am often a bit less meticulous, preferring to bake “by feel”, and I would say my bread usually turns out pretty good despite this approach.

I mention this because it is difficult for me to quantitatively describe high altitude baking when I’m not actually keeping track of all of the variables. Essentially, if dough temperature, air temperature, and humidity are the same, high altitude will lead to a faster rise every time, because the atmospheric pressure is lower at a higher altitude. But of course, these variables are not the same, so the altitude is just one more thing to consider, especially if I’m baking “by feel”. The main thing I hope to highlight is that baking bread incorporates many of the same elements that I’m actively recording and observing for work, and they’re all to be considered throughout the bread baking process, and whether or not I’m physically recording these variables, I’m always making mental notes in my head of how the dough is interacting with its local atmosphere.

Happy Baking!

Nate Iannuccillo, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

A Brief Geologic History of The Whites

2020-08-10 16:23:35.000 – Nicole Tallman, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

After hearing word of a North Carolina earthquake that occurred this past Sunday I was reminded of my second passion, Geology. I started diving into the “shakemap” from the USGS website and was able to see where the earthquake was felt and read some reports of first hand experiences from this 5.1 magnitude earthquake. I found myself asking the questions of “Does North Carolina have a geological reason for having earthquakes?”, “How was North Carolina geologically formed?”. These questions inevitably lead to “How was Mount Washington formed?”.

Thanks to a paper written by R. Buchwaldt and F. Dudas I was able to dive into the evolution of Mount Washington and some geologic forcing that developed our beloved Appalachian Mountains. Below I will summarize some of the key elements to how Mount Washington came to be.

As the supercontinent Pangea formed, there were many collisions of other plates that molded the geology of the Whites. About 450 to 250 millions of years ago (Ma), the continent called Gondwana (Current day Europe and Africa combined) crashed into North America. During this collision, some of the Earth was thrusted upward causing a large elevated region. While the Appalachian Mountains at one point rose more than 4.5 miles high, forces of erosion weathered it down. There was a second collision of continents about 400 Ma between North America and a micro continent f Avalonia. The rocks were crushed together with a series of folding and faulting. Under the intense heat and pressure of this event, many of the sedimentary minerals of the earth were transitioned into different minerals through the process of metamorphism. Some of the infamous granite of the granite state was produced in this event where the heat and pressure was so strong that it melted the previous rock into granite.

A secondary type of geologic event that is responsible for most of the features we see today is glaciers. Approximately 0.08 Ma or 80,000 years ago the Wisconsinan glaciation occurred. It is estimated that back then there was an estimated 1km thick of ice on top of Mount Washington. “The deposited sediments have been dated by the Carbon method and indicate that the local ice had retreated from the lower elevations by 13,500 years and that the Presidential Range was ice free by about 11,500 years ago” said Buchwaldt and Dudas. Glaciers tend to hold onto and “eat up” rocks as they move. So, as they melt and recede they will leave behind some of their deposits in their wake. The White Mountains attribute some of their features to this process.

I found this paper very informative and fascinating. I have always wondered how Mount Washington came to be and now many of my questions have been answered! I hope you have learned some new geology about how our beloved white mountains were formed over time!

Information from R. Buchwaldt and F. Dudas paper titled: DEAPS 2013: Geology of the Mt. Washington area, New Hampshire, a glimpse into the evolution of the Appalachian Mountains

Nicole Tallman, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

AuGUST Lives Up to It’s Name: New Monthly Wind Record!

2020-08-05 17:21:24.000 – Sam Robinson, Weather Observer/Engineer

What an evening we had yesterday! For my first real storm/wind event of my MWOBS career I’d say I got an exciting one! As Tropical Storm Isaias (ees-ah-EE-ahs) raced up the eastern seaboard these past few days it brought heavy rain and serious winds to much of the region including a record breaking wind gust to the summit.

During the afternoon hours leading up to the closest passage of the storm, the other observers and I patiently waited and monitored the progress as Isaias battered its way through southern New England. I wondered what my new personal wind record would be as it was previously just barely over hurricane force at 77 mph, and forecasts were suggesting triple digits. As the day went on the winds started ramping up and bands of showers moved into the area. I could sense the growing excitement in the room as we discussed our peak wind guesses for the night, and communicated with relatives to our south where tornado warnings were popping up here and there. Since I am so new to how different summit weather is compared to the valley I did not know how to base my guess, so I went in between the other observers at 121 mph.

The storm drew closer to us as we neared the evening hours, with the center track being west of the summit, traveling north through the middle of Vermont. Winds quickly climbed to 70, 80, then 90 mph smashing through my personal record and amazing me with the rate of increase in speeds due to Isaias being such a fast mover. During the 6 o’clock hour we crested 100 mph, and I was able to go outside and experience the mayhem. It was a humbling experience being pushed around, although I was told the southeast winds we were experiencing are generally less menacing out on the observation deck since we are situated on the northwest side of the summit. A short while later a gust of 123 mph made quite the roar and my guess was looking A-OK at that point. At about the same time, heavier bands of rain started passing through which dumped an appreciable amount of rain in a short period. I was downstairs cooking some dinner when suddenly the stove vent water drain bottle overflowed all over the counter, with the feed tube having a steady stream of water exiting it. My engineering mind rushed to find some hose so that the drain could feed right to the sink. Normally the drain bottle could be emptied every once in a while but the heavy rain bands overwhelmed the system at the time. I was happy to be able to find a solution to the problem quickly or the bottle would have had to be emptied every 5 minutes it seemed, which would have taken away my opportunity to storm watch with the crew!

The winds started to decrease a bit, with the peak gust still remaining at 123 and it looked like it was trending downwards. My guess seemed to still be holding up well! Was the heaviest part of the storm over? Nearing the 8 o’clock hour David Decou, our shift night observer, came in from taking an observation and said it felt like the winds were getting stronger again. Our usual wind speed recording device, the famous hays chart, was unfortunately not in service so sadly we could not watch the red ink line to observe the trends. Luckily, we were able to pull up a computer program that mimics the hays chart so we had the next best thing to view and check the spikes from strong gusts. Suddenly at 8PM sharp, the chart spiked showing a gust of 147 mph! The wind database was cross referenced and sure enough, it showed a peak gust of 146.7 mph from the southeast! Our crew celebrated the feat as it set all of our personal records and we then shared the news with the state park crew who also had a few new personal records set. We soon discovered that besides personal records, it also set a new all-time wind record for the month of August! The previous record was 142 mph set back in August of 1954.

My final thoughts on my first storm is just wow. The thrill and excitement being up here, monitoring the weather and experiencing the power of nature first hand is incredible. I look forward to many more storms, especially those with snow involved (too early for this?). Definitely glad to have nearly doubled my record, and experienced 100+ mph winds but I have a feeling 147 will probably hold for a bit, who knows.

If you enjoy learning more about the weather and the Mount Washington Observatory consider joining us on Tuesday for our Second Science In The Mountains program on Thunderstorms, Lightning & Lightning Safety. To learn more and sign up for the virtual presentation visit this link below:

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_a1df2s7lRJCW4OyrNq9bBA

Sam Robinson, Weather Observer/Engineer

A Little Bit of White Mountain Tornado History

2020-08-03 19:33:11.000 – Nate Iannuccillo, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

This past week, I spent some time researching tornadoes in preparation for a distance learning program on tornado development. Aside from learning some fun facts for the presentation, I got rather curious about tornado history in New Hampshire…

While Mt Washington isn’t exactly known for its tornadic activity (to my knowledge there has never been an observed tornado on Mt Washington), but New Hampshire does average around a tornado a year, and tornadoes have been observed in every state in the US.

After exploring some of the historical tornadoes throughout the state, it seems that most of them occurred in the southern half of the state, which is no surprise considering the impeding effects the mountain terrain would have on the required vorticity.

That being said, my exploration into the history of tornadoes in the whites did procure a few results. My coworker, observer Ryan Knapp, recalled the Gorham tornado of 2010. I did manage to find a news clip that highlights the F0 twister with some brief footage.

I also learned about another F0 tornado that touched down on the south side of Pequawket Pond in Conway Village on June 23, 1965, and a little further south, Tamworth experienced two F1 tornadoes both in the month of August of 1972 and 1976. The 1972 tornado was 77 yards wide and tracked northwest from just east of Chocorua village to just north of Silver Lake. The 1976 Tamworth tornado touched down just north of the center of town with 5 reported injuries, the only injuries reported of the mentioned tornadoes.

For anyone in need of a refresh on the Fujita scale, the metric for classifying tornadoes is based on wind speed and its associated damage. The Fujita scale is named after the prominent Japanese American severe storms researcher Tetsuya Theodore Fujita.

Also not too far away was the August 1969 F3 tornado that tracked up the Interstate 93 corridor from around Thornton to just south of Woodstock. An F3 tornado classifies a tornado as having wind speeds ranging from 158 to 206 mph, and I find it remarkable to think that while we experience winds of that magnitude every once in a while, tornadic events could potentially bring such violent winds to a fairly wide range of locations.

At the dinner table this evening, weather observer David Decou and I chatted about the idea of whether or not a tornado could touch down on Mount Washington. We both agreed that it is fairly unlikely, but not impossible. One of the common misconceptions about tornadogenesis is that tornadoes can’t form over mountains because of the effect the mountain would have on the twister. This isn’t exactly the case… The reason tornadoes don’t often form over mountains has more to do with how they impede the convective and cyclonic development needed for tornadogenesis. Essentially, it often proves to be a bit of a scrambler for clouds that might ordinarily have conditions favorable for tornado development.

So I’m not sure that we’ll ever see a tornado up here, but if it were to happen, we’ll surely be keeping an eye out.

Nate Iannuccillo, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

The Overcoat: A Meteorological Perspective

2020-07-27 12:41:43.000 – Nate Iannuccillo, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

Despite having a particularly busy week on the summit, in my downtime, I finally got around to reading one of the all-time classic Russian short stories by Nikolai Gogol, The Overcoat (Spoilers! You’ve been warned!). It’s a tale of a man (Akaky Akakievich) who finds himself in need of a new coat, a necessity given the harsh winters of Northern Russia, and he undergoes considerable personal sacrifice in order to afford a suitably warm jacket. Once he finally acquires sufficient funds to pay the tailor, he is celebrated for the decadence of his new coat, and actually experiences a renewed and vivified life, only to be assaulted and robbed of the coat before enduring an unfortunate and untimely death at the hands of the cold weather conditions.

Old cover art by Igor Grabar

The interpretations of the overcoat are many, and the symbol of one man’s new jacket has been spun around and appropriated for various means. And maybe this is the appeal of Gogol’s story, its enduring presence attributed to the universality of the ambiguous symbol. As such, these various readings are all valid in some way, and I state this more as a preface to my own examination of the tale.

There are many demons in this story (Akaky least of all), and I find myself questioning who exactly the main villain is in this cautionary tale…

Is it Akaky’s coworkers, who do little to help the man after he is robbed of his overcoat? Is it the police, who condescend to Akaky after the assault and robbery? Is it the hollowness of the man’s own unfulfilled life? Or is it the economic system that forces Akaky to toil in his job as a copyist only to scrape out a living where he can barely afford a suitable winter coat. Or is the real villain the very oppressive and indifferent St. Petersburg Winter???

Now, there are many interpretations of the symbolic overcoat, and calling it a story about adverse weather conditions is similar to calling Moby Dick a story about whales, to do so perhaps misses the point entirely, but that’s where I’m going with this, and perhaps the brilliance of the literature is that I can find myself discussing a nineteenth-century Russian short story in a weather blog.

Anyhow, I’m not actually going to argue that the harsh weather conditions in all of their indifference are the premier villain in this story, not a chance. But I will make the case that the winter conditions are the real force multiplier in this short story. All of the injustices suffered by the main character are magnified by the cruel Russian winter. Time and time again, this is the human relation to extreme weather, and on Mt Washington this is certainly the case. Over and over again on our mountain, we see people suffering the magnification of their mistakes and bearing witness to the indifference of the mountain.

This past week, as I prepared for the first presentation of the Science in the Mountains series (tomorrow night! Register for this program at mountwashington.org/SITM), I spent some time reflecting on the observers of yore, and the difference between the Mt Washington Observatory past and present. Thinking about some of the major changes, like the building, the instruments, and the gear, I can’t help but feel incredibly grateful. I find it easy to take things like our partnership with Eastern Mountain Sports for granted, knowing that I personally have the right coat for any weather situation up here, but as I look at the pictures of the original observers, I can’t help but imagine that these guys probably suffered a fair bit more than I am right now…

The original four weather observers: Alex Mckenzie, Bob Monahan, Joe Dodge, Sal Pagliuca

Some of my questions looking at the original four observers are as follows: Who had the best coat amongst the group? What were the financial situations of these guys? Did they find this job enjoyable? Or did the harsh conditions prevent the job from being what I might describe as fun?

And it is here that I find myself arriving at an interesting dichotomy, and it involves extreme weather. Here at Mt Washington, we generally relish the mountain and the extreme weather it provides, but for most of the world, extreme weather is a massively oppressive and indifferent entity, something to be feared and survived above all else. Perhaps the observatory is both my metaphorical and literal overcoat (Thanks EMS!), something that allows me to both embrace life on the mountain and study the weather with relative fascination…

Nate Iannuccillo, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

Science In The Mountains Returns!

2020-07-20 16:49:23.000 – Brian Fitzgerald, Director of Science and Education

On Tuesday, July 28th at 7pm, the Science in the Mountains lecture series returns to Mount Washington Observatory with some exciting new changes. For starters we’ll be delivering our Science in the Mountains programs virtually for the first time ever, allowing each lecture to reach an even-broader audience than before. On top of this, lectures will be offered throughout the year instead of six consecutive weeks in July & August.

The flexibility of virtual programs and year-round scheduling gives MWO staff the ability to invite speakers from far and wide to share information and spark conversations about weather and climate. Over the first four programs in July, August and September will cover MWO History, Lightning Safety, a round-table discussions about the legacy of Hurricane Irene and finally the intersections between weather and bird migration.

With just about a week away from our first program, there’s been a lot of work developing an engaging virtual lecture about the history of the Observatory to kick off the series. While many people know MWO because they’ve used our higher summits forecast to plan a safe hike or are familiar with the world-record-setting 231 MPH wind recorded in 1934, there is a trove of fascinating people, stories and facts about the practical and human side of running a mountain-top weather station.

By far one of the most enjoyable parts of developing programs about MWO’s history is the excuse to dive deep into the photographs, records and wealth of materials archived in the Gladys Brooks Memorial Library and in Dr. Peter Crane’s head, the library’s curator. As a walking encyclopedia himself, the organization (and myself included) to direct both simple and impossible questions his way about MWO’s history. I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about the history of MWO and the region; however, I am continually humbled by not knowing the answers to some fairly basic questions like “when did MWO begin contract services with the National Weather Service?” or “when did membership start and who was the first member?” or even more recently, “when did MWO start producing a higher summits forecast?”. And by far my favorite MWO history question is, “how many cats witnessed the big wind of 1934?”.

Whether you’re already a White Mountains history buff or casually interested in the operations and history of a unique organization like Mount Washington Observatory, I’d strongly recommend you register for our first program using this link and we look forward to seeing you virtually for this exciting new series!

Brian Fitzgerald, Director of Science and Education

Reflections on My First DL

2020-07-13 16:23:37.000 – Nicole Tallman, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

Today I led my first distance-learning program since being hired as the Education Specialist. After many days fine-tuning my presentation and rehearsing to others and myself today was finally the day! In some ways, preparing for this DL was much like preparing a lesson for a classroom. 2 years of teaching definitely prepared me for this first step!

After creating the content, I had my presentation peer reviewed by coworkers. They were able to give me pointers on how to captivate the audience further and caught the mistakes I was overlooking. It’s always good to have a second set of eyes (or even a third) to overlook your work!

Once the presentation was set, I ran through the slides several times to solidify what I wanted to talk about for each one and made sure to keep it fun and entertaining! Some tips that I learned was to have an interesting background of a photo or video, little amount of text, and if possible use a prop! These tricks were things that I had noticed from my teaching days as well.

Weather Observer Nicole Tallman using the sling psychrometer during an ob

Once I felt that my DL program was perfect I rehearsed one more time and then I was set! This morning I refreshed a few key points and then it was time to put all of my hard work to the test. Today’s program was a program on Extreme Weather Obs where I featured how and why we as weather observers take hourly weather observations. This program was for one of our sponsors, MathWorks! I walked my viewers through the instruments used in weather observation as well as some of the importance of being a manual weather station at 6288’ elevation.

A photo used in my DL of the founding fathers of MWObs

Once I pushed through the initial nerves of presenting in front of a (unseen) crowd through Zoom, I was back to my old habits of teaching what I am passionate about. I always found it so important to be passionate while leading classes. This energy is what connect to your students or participants and helps them get involved in the content you are conveying! I am very passionate about MWObs and our job up here on the summit as weather observers and I hope that was shown through my DL!

A chart used in my DL to explain one of the reasons why Mount Washington sees severe weather

I get to continue practicing these skills moving forward for my next program (tomorrow’s program on Tropical Cyclones), as well as future programs like Science in the Mountains. I absolutely love to educate and to get people excited about weather and climate and hope that I influence my viewers through these DLs.

Nicole Tallman, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

Follow Your Dreams, They Know the Way (to the Summit, In My Case)!

2020-07-06 16:21:06.000 – Sam Robinson, Weather Observer/Engineer

Hello from the Highest Office in the East!*

My name is Sam Robinson and I am the new weather observer in training at the observatory. The first few days here have been nothing but surreal for me and I am still in pure awe. Having never been to the summit of Mt. Washington before my first day on the job, the shock has still not worn off. I find myself staring out the windows at the view whenever I am not looking at my weather studying materials, and I have already taken 75 pictures in just 5 days. Everything about this place has exceeded my expectations so far. I graduated (virtually) this spring from University of Massachusetts Lowell with a bachelors of science in Mechanical Engineering but also a strong interest in the weather. I did not have a clue of when, or if I was going to find a job given the current circumstances of the world but I knew where I wanted to be; 6288 feet up in the White Mountains. I had been well aware of the MWOBS and its mission throughout college and I regularly viewed social media posts, summits forecasts, and observers comments learning more about this place and it’s wicked weather. Shortly after graduation the weather observer position opened up on the MWOBS website making me hope one day soon I would be writing my own observers comments. Fast forward a few weeks and here I am. Life can be just as wild as the weather!

The End of a Stormy Evening to Our Southeast

Speaking of the weather, it has not been too wild yet although I have already passed the half century mark for wind gusts (50 MPH) which I understand is somewhat gusty for July. I was greeted on my first day by torrential rainfall at the base, which just seemed all too fitting to me. There I met Jay and David, the other observers on my shift who welcomed me with friendliness and good instructions since everything was so new to me. I got a nice look at the snowcat, which interested me since I have a background with repairing and maintaining heavy equipment. My first ascent of the auto road was breathtaking even though we passed in and out of the clouds multiple times, giving brief views of the ominous Presidential range. The summit was enveloped in the fog when we arrived so the 80+ mile views I was so looking forward to had to wait. My first day was full of new sights, new people, and new surroundings as I was introduced to the other summit employees and shown around the summit cone by Summit Operations Manager Becca, who was also welcoming and helpful. I also met Marty the summit feline, who was a little skeptical of me at first but has since warmed up and enjoys treats and neck rubs on the regular. Living on the highest summit in the Northeast truly feels like a second home so far which is good since I will be living here for half of each year. I found out that Jay is quite the chef and baker and I rarely get too hungry. My cooking skills definitely need some refining but David and I make a pretty good duo when it comes to cooking up meals, and we came up with a top notch baked pulled pork mac and cheese last night. I started venturing around the summit a bit after shift as I am an avid hiker, and it feels great to relax and breath in the crisp, cool air at the end of each day. I can’t wait to venture out a little further and explore the neighboring peaks.

First of Many Sunset Pictures

Being a Mechanical Engineer who had never visited the summit before let alone the observatory, I was a little nervous thinking I would be at a bit of a disadvantage. I did not know a whole lot about the specific operations and day to day duties and life. By the second or third day the nervousness was completely gone due to Jay’s helpful training and knowledge of just about any weather or summit related question I had for him. Since Mech. Engineering is also a physical science, many of the concepts and theories behind the weather are easy for me to grasp and understand and it has helped me much more than I expected. I already know multitudes more about atmospheric science than I did before coming up here and I cannot seem to stop researching and getting up to speed with meteorology. I love the weather! Although temps up here in the summer are cool, I look forward to the coming cold and my favorite season and weather, winter. As my first shift week comes to a close I look back on how I got here and realize it all truly started with a dream. I don’t mean to get too sappy or inspirational but if you can dream it you can do it, and the only way to make it happen is to work hard and go and get it. I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I look forward to writing more in the future.

*While not being the highest point east of the Mississippi, my research has led me to conclude it is the highest office!!

Sam Robinson, Weather Observer/Engineer

Previous 91011 Next

August 2020

Radar, the Military, and Wan Shi Tong’s Library

A Glimpse of Cooler Weather

Some Notes on Baking at Altitude

A Brief Geologic History of The Whites

AuGUST Lives Up to It’s Name: New Monthly Wind Record!

A Little Bit of White Mountain Tornado History

July 2020

The Overcoat: A Meteorological Perspective

Science In The Mountains Returns!

Reflections on My First DL

Follow Your Dreams, They Know the Way (to the Summit, In My Case)!