Historical Posts Archives - Page 24 of 378 - Mount Washington Observatory

March 2019

Broadening My Horizons on the Alpine Tundra

2019-03-05 18:40:07.000 – Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

As an Education Observer up on the summit, often times I’m tasked with developing and delivering programs based on weather and Mount Washington. It’s something that I’ve become very comfortable doing over the past few months, and I’ve become very passionate about my work. I like being able to share my knowledge about weather, and doing so in such a way that people can understand and better relate to the summit makes me very, very happy!

Aside from learning the intricacies of mountain weather, I’ve fallen back on my schooling and the classes I taught at my previous job very heavily. So it’s not terribly often that I get to learn things outside of my wheel house, then attempt to present them as if I am an expert on said topics. I had this opportunity this past shift, and I learned quite a lot about the mountain as a result!

On Tuesday we had several distance learning programs connecting to the summit to learn about what it’s like to live and work on Mount Washington. But they were also expecting content about the Alpine Tundra, the ecosystem that exists here at higher elevations. And with that, there was to be a discussion about the different plants and animals who live up here year round, and how they have adapted to the harsh conditions we experience. I had never looked into this topic before, and while curiosity about the topic had presented itself in my mind a couple of times, I had no background experience in either flora or fauna, let alone in extreme environments. With the expectation that I deliver high quality and educational content on the subject, I dove right in and learned lots of fascinating things!

I won’t present everything that I learned and talked about in those DLs, as it is a lot and you may have heard a decent amount of it before. But there were 2 things in particular, one about flora and one about fauna, that were really cool! When speaking about it with Will Broussard, the Guru in my opinion, I think he was just as surprised as I was to learn about these things! That’s how I know these are really cool, fresh facts at least!

I’ll start out with this famous flower! Diapensia, which is the small, beautiful white flower shown above, is incredibly hardy and well adapted to the harsh conditions in the Alpine Zone. It’s a perennial flower, and it can continue to live and function even when it is buried beneath the snow! But what was amazing to discover is that the species will actually go through the pollination process twice! Between May and June, it will release pollen across the mountain to attempt to pollenate previously dispersed seeds. And then, it will repeat the process between July and August, basically to make sure that as many of their seeds were pollinated as possible! As far as my basic research could discern, not many plants are known to do this, or at least in such a specific pattern, and it seems to be a pretty rare occurrence that really makes this flower unique! I’m certainly impressed by its determination!

And what about fauna? Welp. It turns out that my “cool fact of the week” regarding animals comes from the Flying Squirrel…

These cute little guys were quite a handful for us to deal with this past summer. They glide (not technically flying) on the thermals that come up the mountain from below, to feed on berries, insects, and some of the small plants that grow across the tundra. And we had a TON of them up here, getting into the building, our food, etc. They’re very fast, and would leap and glide off the observation deck into the rocks below to hide and escape once they got what they were looking for. So what’s the big deal then? I mean, they are cute, and can be quite a nuisance. But what makes them so very special other than gliding?

Well folks, apparently these little buggers can glow fluorescent pink…

You read correctly. When exposed to UV light/a black light, these guy’s little bodies glow bright pink. And not much is known or understood about why exactly this is. Is it genetic? Does it come as a result of their diet? No one knows for sure. But the general consensus seems to be that, since these guys can see really well in UV light, this glow is used as sort of a signal/communication between squirrels. And on top of that, it apparently helps them navigate in the dark, snowy conditions up here on the summit. While the validity of this still isn’t 100%, it’s still incredible and really cool to see!

So while it’s cool to learn about the extreme weather up here on the summit of Mt. Washington, there really is a ton of cool things you can learn about our alpine ecosystem as well! This is just the tip of the iceberg and some of the cooler things I learned this week. But I highly recommend, as you explore the wonder this mountain has to offer, that you look equally into the crazy evolution and adaptations the species that call this place home have made. I know you won’t be disappointed, and there are a ton of cool things to learn!

Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

Not on the windy shift this Year

2019-03-04 02:01:43.000 – Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist

Last Monday on February 25^th, the summit saw some pretty incredible winds and I was not able to come up and witness it myself! Since I have started working here in August of 2015, I have been hoping to see the wind go off the chart. I have come close on several occasions, even just recently on January 22^ndwhen the winds got to 137 and gusted just to the edge of the chart but not off. This year we have had 2 storms, both of which were on the opposite shift as me where the wind has gone off of the chart (Even sustained off the chart with the 171 mph event!). So far this week has been a super let down with the winds on March 2^nd averaging only 9.1 mph. We are getting a little bit of a Nor’easter this evening (March 3^rd), that is bringing accumulating snow but without strong high pressure around, winds are a measly 30 mph.

It seems that every year there is one shift that gets all the big storms. For the last 3 winters, the peak gust for the year has occurred on my shift as well as many of the other high wind events. This year my good luck has run out spectacularly. It is still shocking that a wind event of this magnitude has finally happened again after 30+ years of not seeing any wind over 170 mph. Though on the bright side, in years in which we have seen 170 mph winds, they occurred multiple times in those years so I am keeping my eyes peeled for another significant storm on the horizon.

Looking ahead at the rest of this week up here, it is not looking much better for high winds. After this Nor’easter heads out to sea, we will see some elevated winds on the back side but it is not looking like we will even get to 100 mph. If we do not get to 100 mph this week, this will be the first week I have been up this winter without a 100 mph or greater wind gust, and as a fan of high winds, this is unacceptable!

Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist

A look into the wonky weather New England has been experiencing this winter season

2019-03-02 08:36:37.000 – Jay Broccolo, Summit Intern

Well, our shift does not have a crazy wind event or any kind of weather to write home about so I am going to discuss something that, I personally, think everyone should have some understanding of. This is a fairly intensive post so go grab a snack or a drink, strap in and put your thinking caps on! Also, this starts with a bit of text, but, I promise, there are pretty pictures further down.

If you have not noticed, it has been a bit of a strange 2018/2019 winter season, to say the least. The summit of Mount Washington has seen some extreme wind events and conversely, some extremely calm winds. Precipitation type and accumulations have also been quite wonky throughout New England this year as well. While Northern New England has not been too far out of the ordinary other than Caribou, Maine observing a whopping 147 inches of snow at the time of this blog post, southern New England (Mass, RI, and CT) has seen predominately rain with a severe lack of snowfall. Especially, coastal Southern New England, which normally sees the most intense snowfall rates and accumulations during Nor’easters. Currently, the snow accumulation total for said area is hovering around 2 to 8 inches, depending on where along the coast we want to pinpoint. For example, my hometown of Westerly, RI has seen 3 inches of snow and lots of rain with the month of November being the second highest precipitation amount on record. Here at the summit, precipitation amounts, at least for DJF, have been within the realm of the monthly averages, respectively, with average temperatures as well. So, what is the deal? Whats up with the weird weather this year? Lets discuss one of the factors that influences the weather around New England, the oceans.

Well, the oceans and geology heavily influence the atmosphere. As ocean temperatures rise, sea level rises. Much like if you were to take a gallon of 40-degree water, heat it to around 180 degrees, you will then notice that you now have a little more than a gallon. While these changes in sea level are minimal, on the scale of single to double digit centimeters, they cause noticeable effects in the atmosphere. Therefore, a change in the temperature and a resulting change in sea level all the way down and over in the Eastern Pacific and Gulf of Mexico, affects the weather patterns here in New England and elsewhere. Let us put that aside for the moment though and I will explain as clearly and concise as I can why this matters.

When there are warm temperatures surrounded by cooler temperatures, the atmosphere reacts because it wants everything to be equal (this goes back to my last post where I discussed “the balance” of everything). We know that temperatures at the equator are warmer than temperatures at the poles. We know that warm air rises and cold air sinks, and we know that there is varying amounts of moisture in the warm air masses and barely any in the cold ones. Therefore, warm and moist air generally likes to rise and move towards the poles and cold air from the poles likes to sink and move towards the equator. Where the two different air masses converge is where we observe low-pressure systems, or at the mid latitudes, extra-tropical cyclones. These cyclones are the atmospheres way of mixing the air masses and precipitation is the result a phase change from water vapor to rain or snow as the water vapor rises, cools, and condenses. I digress though, I’ll cover all of that in a later post. Let us get back to the warm waters and heat rising. The point is that, in the northern hemisphere, we have warm moist air moving from the south to north.

Okay, so, we have anomalous warm water and higher sea levels as a result. At the surface or interface where the water meets the air many things are occurring, but I’ll just mention a few. During the day, radiation from the sun evaporates some of the water and turns it to water vapor, air moving over the water picks up some moisture because of friction, and the water itself is warming the air through conduction as well, but this occurs mainly at night. Regardless, we now have a bunch of moisture in the air and its moving to the north. The added moisture to the atmosphere is a form of energy. Think of the water vapor as the storage of energy because it takes energy, in the form of heat, to cause liquid to change phases to vapor. The heat and moisture flux from the oceans provide one of the main energy sources for atmospheric motions so now, let us throw in one of these low-pressure systems.

When a low-pressure system like a Nor’easter is near the Gulf of Mexico, it sucks a lot of that moisture and heat into the system. Specifically, between the warm front and the cold front, and we call this the warm conveyor belt. This is what gives many storms the comma look when observed through radar. As the cyclone heads to our region, it carries all that heat and continues to absorb more and more moisture from the Gulf and once the reaches the Eastern Coastline, from the Atlantic as well, which brings me to my next point. Sea surface temperatures off the coast of New England have also been significantly higher, fueling and intensifying these systems with more moisture and heat. The last piece of the puzzle goes back to the storage of energy in the form of water vapor I was talking about earlier. As the water vapor rises in the atmosphere, it cools and condenses back to liquid form and depending on cold the air temperature is snow can form. When this phase change occurs, that heat stored in the water vapor is released into the air, which we call a latent heat flux. In order to change water vapor to water you have to pull enough heat out of the vapor for it to change back to water, similar to the boiling water. A good portion of the heat that we added to the water from the stove-top then is released into the air as the steam produced from the boiling water cools under the pot cover. All that heat warms the air preventing the formation of snow, at least, near the phase change. Further north in New Hampshire and Maine the air temperatures are much colder than they are in Southern New England so the latent heat released due to the phase change is not enough to warm the air temperatures above the freezing mark. Therefore, precipitation occurs as snow.

Finally, it’s time for all the pictures to bring this all together…

Below, we can see the average sea surface temperature anomalies over the past 4 weeks. Note that the SST’s are significantly warmer off the east coast of the US, the Gulf of Mexico, and southwest of Mexico (El Nino Southern Oscillation, or ENSO).

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf

Now lets take a look at whats currently going on with the ENSO.

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf”

The higher SST’s correlate to a slight rise in sea levels seen below. Note the significant rise in sea level around New England and less so in the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of Mexico in the Pacific.

“https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/ocean/weeklyenso_clim_81-10/wksl_anm.gif”

And finally, below is an image of precipitable water in the atmosphere with some skillfully drawn red arrows indicating the warm conveyor belt (WCB).

To conclude this post, I want to finish by saying a couple things. Precipitation type doesn’t just depend on sea surface temperatures and the amount of heat released by latent heat. There are many factors that decide precip type. One of the biggest factors is the track of the storm. The further south the track is, the better chance for snow. The last thing I want to bring up is that as I mentioned before the oceans are one of the main energy sources for the atmosphere. When we talk about climate change we tend to discuss the atmosphere and state of the climate. However, the ocean’s have an incredible heat capacity and mass, which allow it to store up to 1000 times the energy that is found in the atmosphere for an equivalent rise in temperature. So when we look at the state of climate change we also need to look at the oceans. Now, just because the SST’s are warmer this year because of an El Nino cycle, doesn’t mean this is an indicator for climate change. If it occurs year over year, decade over decade, and so one, it does become an indicator. So I implore anyone to check it out, do your own research and see whats going on!

As always, I appreciate you all allowing me to ramble about my passion and reading it. My hope is that it gives you all an idea of another avenue to look at when wondering about the state of the weather and climate. It can be extremely overwhelming, for sure. That being said, this post only describes one aspect of the wonky weather we have been having.

Respectfully presented,

Jay Broccolo, Summit Intern

Monday’s Wind

2019-02-26 20:33:18.000 – Krissy Fraser, Events & Marketing Manager

Mount Washington Observatory staff and guests experienced an epic day of wind on the summit on Monday, February 25, 2019. They gathered in the non-profit’s legendary weather room with all eyes pegged to the Hays Chart* eager to see how fast the winds would blow as it topped out at 171 miles per hour at 6:35pm.

Taylor Regan, Weather Observer and Research Specialist recounts the experience, “everyone gathered around the Hays Chart watching with bated breath as the ink climbed higher up the paper wheel. The building rumbled with the force of what seemed like several freight trains, cluing us into the next possible peak. 158…164…171! A new February record gust!,” said Regan, “Congratulations were exchanged as if we, personally, had achieved something great, simply by bearing witness to the raging storm.”

“It was an incredible, slightly frightening experience to witness the power of this storm,” said Tom Padham – Weather Observer and Education Specialist. “This storm was on a different level than any I had experienced in my 6 years here. The windows vigorously flexed back and forth in their casings, the water in our plumbing was swishing back and forth. It was an experience I will never forget!”

This 171 mph gust beats the previous February record of 166 mph, set in 1972, and now ranks as the 8th windiest day recorded on the summit of Mount Washington, going by peak wind gusts, and 6th windiest day, going by 24-hour average.

In addition to the powerful gust the summit also experienced a 24-hour average at 110 mph with the highest hourly average being 138 mph. To give some perspective of the overall event, a category 4 hurricane has sustained winds at 130-156 mph.

Winds are recorded with a pitot tube anemometer, normally used to measure aircraft speed, but modified to accurately measure winds blowing by Mount Washington. “We were fortunate enough to have not one but two working pitot anemometers for this storm. Our brand new Next Generation Anemometer got a great first test, and held up extremely well during an incredible wind storm, ” noted Keith Garrett, Director of IT.

The mountain top weather station on the summit of Mount Washington was established in 1932 by founders Bob Monahan, Sal Pagliuca, Alex McKenzie, and Joe Dodge, with the mission to advance understanding of weather and climate on Mount Washington.

Later touted as “The Home of the World’s Worst Weather” and renown for recording the highest wind speed ever observed by man at 231 mph on April 12, 1934, the Observatory continues to fulfill and expand upon this mission.

On April 12, 2019 the Mount Washington Observatory will be celebrating its 85th anniversary of the “Big Wind” featuring a presentation from Director of Research Dr. Eric Kelsey and Weather Observer/Research Specialist Taylor Regan at an Open House event at the Weather Discovery Center in North Conway, N.H.

*The Hays Chart is an analog windspeed recorder used as a backup system, and also visual tool to measure the wind. This system has been in place on the summit since the 1950s, with paper charts changed each day at midnight. The chart rotates over the course of the day, and the pen needle on the chart is forced outwards depending on the speed of the wind, with the outer edge of the chart corresponding to roughly 140 mph. The system is connected to the pitot tube on top of the tower, with units on the chart corresponding to inches of water, as the tubing formerly forced a column of water corresponding to the wind speed value.

Krissy Fraser, Events & Marketing Manager

Brighter Times Ahead

2019-02-23 21:44:30.000 – Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist

This morning I viewed something from the summit that I hadn’t seen since late October, 2018 – morning blue hour. Over my 13 years working up here, this event is one of the things I look forward to annually working my night shifts on the summit. To some it might be mundane and something they see every day while getting ready or heading off to work or school. But for me, during the late October/early November to late February/early March time-frame, I have to either lose sleep and/or make a real effort to witness this color in the sky or the brighter event that follows it – sunrise!

While on the summit, my night shift spans from 1730 EST to 0530 EST the following morning. Around the summer solstice, my time in the dark is at its shortest with sunrise occurring at ~0355 EST and sunset taking place at ~1940 EST. So I easily get to view sunrise and sunset on a daily basis and even get to enjoy some sunlight while starting and ending my shift. On the flip side, around winter solstice, my life is a dark abyss with sunrise occurring at ~0715 EST and sunset at ~1610 EST. While I am typically up before sunset during the winter months, for sunrise, I would have to wait up. After working for 12 hours deicing, shoveling, going out to gather every hour, and various other duties, by the end of it, sunrise is furthest from my mind as sleep always is the preferred option.

With days starting to get longer and sunrises occurring earlier and sunsets later, brighter horizons are ahead. Astronomical/Nautical/Civil dawn along with sunrise will continue to get earlier. So for the next shift week or two, I will continue to see more and more blue until I finally get to see my first summit sunrise of 2019. Sunrises will be occurring while I am on duty by the end of March but for the next few weeks, if it looks like it is going to be a colorful one, I will choose to lose a few minutes of sleep to take it in. And like usual, I will share my point of view with you all via our various social media feeds (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) as well as right here in our blogs. Until then though, my coworkers will continue to share their views of daybreak and other vistas with you.

Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist

Some Common Questions and Misconceptions About Mount Washington

2019-02-22 09:14:51.000 – Thomas Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

How do you measure snowfall in high winds?

Accurately measuring snowfall can be challenging or even impossible in very high winds. During the early days of the observatory we discovered that using a Nipher Screen can help to more accurately capture snowfall during moderate (30-60 mph) winds. This Nipher screen is basically a large funnel over the top portion of the precipitation stand which helps create a vacuum to capture snowflakes. Our winter precipitation cans are also taller than the summer season can (nearly 4’) which helps to create a larger vacuum.

I heard the anemometer blew away during the former world record wind. How does this count as a record?

The anemometer did not blow away! Following the 231 mph storm in April 1934 the anemometer was sent for testing to MIT and found to calibrated correctly and in perfect working order, therefore verifying a world record at the time. For any official record, the instrument must be verified to be in good working condition both before and after the event in question, and we regularly calibrate all of our instrumentation to the standards of the National Weather Service.

Is Mount Washington the coldest place in the lower 48?

On any given day, Mount Washington may be the coldest inhabited place in the lower 48, but there are several high elevations towns in the western U.S or northern plains that frequently see more extreme cold than Mount Washington. Mount Washington’s average annual temperature of 28°F is more similar to the sub-arctic, but during the winter season we do not see extreme arctic (or Antarctic) cold. Our record low of -47°F pales in comparison to Alaska (-80°F) or the incredible -129°F record of Antarctica! Factoring in our winds we do so some pretty incredible wind chill values, sometimes exceeding -100°F.

Was the 231 mph storm just a fluke?

Short answer: no! Although we’ve “only” recorded a 182 mph gust besides our former-record wind, a similar storm to April 12^th, 1934 could happen again. The summit is one of the windiest spots on average on earth, and during the winter season we record 100 mph winds every 4-5 days. The 231 mph storm was exceptional, but even more extreme events may have occurred in the past, and may still occur in the future. The key is we need to have people and instruments up here to measure these incredible events!

Is the Observatory a part of the National Weather Service?

The Observatory is a nonprofit organization that has operated a weather station on top of Mount Washington since 1932. Our focus is on weather observation, education, and research. We do submit our data to the National Weather Service each hour, and receive a small stipend for this service, but the majority of our support comes from thousands of people across the country interested in the work we do.

What sort of research does the observatory do?

The summit of Mount Washington is a great natural laboratory, and over the years we’ve tested the limits of all sorts of things. During the 1940s and 1950s airplane jet engines were tested on the summit to see how they handled the frequent icing conditions we see here. We’ve tested weather instrumentation, clothing, camping gear, even paint! This past summer the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) hatched eggs from a species of butterfly only found on and around Mount Washington here at the observatory.

Thomas Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

Working Nights with a Full Moon

2019-02-20 05:09:40.000 – Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist

Working nights can be taxing on your sleep schedule but there are quite a few moments of peacefulness. My favorite nights to work are nights with light winds and a full moon in the winter. The past few days have featured such nights. The moon has been so bright that I have not needed to let my eyes adjust for long to be able to distinguish landmarks!

One of the nights, the clouds had cleared after some snow showers and I did not need to wear a headlamp to be able to go get the can at 1 am. Winds were only about 20 miles an hour as well so it made for an easy task for once. It is a small thing that is really cool to experience while working nights due to how rare it is up here on the summit. Most of the time getting the precipitation can at 1 am there is a raging blizzard going with visibility only a few feet.

With these nice nights, hikers are many times seen coming up to the summit. This week has also featured a few brave people who are summiting the presidential range at 1 or 2 am and also being able to experience beautiful nights.

The one downside to having such a bright moon is that the light will greatly limit the amount of stars that you can see. Back when I worked nights full time, the northern lights were out on a night with a full moon and it made it hard to see the colors of the lights due to the brightness of the moon.

I do not have any pictures to share of the moon unfortunately due to the phone making for a not very exciting photo. I hope one day to get a better camera and learn from Ryan Knapp on how to take incredible photos!

Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist

Battles with Blowing Snow

2019-02-18 10:57:20.000 – Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

Mt. Washington is home to the World’s Worst Weather. If you are from the area, a frequent visitor or have been to the summit, you have likely heard this before. And there is a lot of truth in that statement! We see insane wind speeds throughout the year, frequently gusting to or above 100 mph. We see incredible amounts or snow and ice, with the snow pack sometimes lasting well into the summer! And for 2/3 of the year, we have fog with low visibility! Over the last 9 months, I have learned a lot about these intense conditions, and certainly have grown as an operational forecaster because of that. But as the weather over the last week has proven, there is always more to learn and always room to grow regarding extreme weather.

It has been an incredibly gray shift, considering that we’ve had 3 low pressure systems blast through over the last 7 days. We went 5 days (up until Saturday) without really having seen the sun, which was difficult to deal with mentally. But fog, snow and strong winds are typical over our 8-month winter season. Interestingly enough, despite 3 low pressures moving through, we did not have a lot of snow accumulation. Especially with the first low on Wednesday, before which there were murmurings that we could see upwards of 2 feet of snow. We saw 5 inches.

The winds have been some of the lightest our shift has seen so far this year! We started off in the 50-70 gusting to 90 mph range at the beginning of the week, which is typical. But we’ve dropped down to less than 20 mph over the last 2 days! Even the temperatures have been “moderate”. We’ve been mostly above 0, and even got into the mid 20’s a few days ago! Needless to say, when you look at what are typically our 3 biggest weather-related concerns regarding transportation, conditions really have been quite tame.

The Hays Chart showing incredibly low winds for the winter season

So why is it, then, that we’ve had to cancel several of our upbound excursions during this past week? What has made it so difficult to get to the summit, considering we’ve had wind, temperatures, and accumulations totals far off from what one would consider extreme? The answer to this question has been the big learning experience for me this week, especially with me working as the lead during the day.

Blowing snow, from an operational forecast standpoint, is merely an obscuration. It’s reported when you have snow lifted and whipped around in the air above 6 feet as a result of the wind. When winds are high, this can in fact obscure your visibility pretty well, hence why it’s denoted as an obscuration. But compared to the typical fog and snowfall we see up here, I had come to see blowing snow as simply an additional feature to current weather conditions; what I would consider a “oh yea, and that was happening too…” observation.

That’s a big mistake when considering making your way to the summit. Blowing snow can be a much, much bigger deal.

We haven’t had much issue regarding our shift making it to the summit this season. We had 1 trip at the beginning where the other shift got stuck for 2 extra days resulting from thick fog, high winds and heavy snowfall. That set the precedent for me. If the fog isn’t thick, if the winds aren’t high, and the snowfall is light, then there shouldn’t be much issue in reaching the summit. I knew snow drifts on the road presented an issue. But with our powerful Snowcat and incredible operators, we’ve been able to push through way more often than not. So when I forecasted the weather for the trips this weekend, noted the light snow accumulation, light fog and lower wind speeds, I was more than confident that there wouldn’t be any issues. It even became a point of contention between Adam and I, with Adam far less confident about the success in the trips making it. The difference between the two of us came in the form of experience, in that Adam had witnessed what I was going through already, and knew exactly how bad the blowing snow could get further down the road, and how thick the fog could be compared to the summit.

And that was the reality. Up here on the summit, accumulation totals were less than 3 inches, less than 1 inch, or none at all! Winds went from 60 mph, to 40 mph, to 20 mph! And on Saturday, we were in and out of the fog with sunshine at times throughout the day! And I was totally confounded when reports came up from below that the road conditions were too bad, and the Snowcat was turning around. I didn’t have the perspective at the time; couldn’t see the conditions they were stuck in. It wouldn’t be until later on Saturday that I could see exactly how bad it was down the road.

The view looking back down the road while trying to fight through the snow. Photo courtesy of Will Broussard

The above picture comes from Will Broussard, our Outreach Coordinator and trip leader for Saturday’s Edutrip. As you can see, despite patches of blue sky above, the blowing snow was nearly obscuring visibility completely. And what’s worse, it was drifting fast and heavy back on to the road, eliminating a lot of the work the Snowcat drivers had been trying to put in to make the road passable.

You see, I had failed to recognize how much impact the finer details of these light conditions would have. Yes, we had low accumulation totals. But the snow was light and loose, and could easily be moved by light winds. The winds themselves were light, but their direction changed repeatedly from Southwest, to Northwest with each passing low. This would blow snow down off the summit cone below the road, and the Northwest wind would blow it all back up on to the road, essentially drifting it in twice. And while we would be in and out of the fog on the summit, the thicker center of the fog bank below added the unnecessary “pea soup” conditions on top of the poor visibility from the blowing snow.

The end result? Massive snow drifts completely covering the road, and near 0 visibility for the operators trying to clear it. It became a non-stop, uphill battle with conditions that were likely more than exhausting to deal with. And without being able to observe any of it first hand, we were mostly in the dark up here at the station about how bad it truly was. Now, after being able to see evidence of it, it is quite clear why the trips have had the trouble they had.

I feel bad, as an operational forecaster, and have been apologizing for my mistakes. I had far too much optimism in my forecasting and projected a bit too much confidence in the trip success. And while I didn’t know how bad it could get in that sense, I have that experience now and will carry it forward with me as a forecaster. It was an important lesson to learn, and has become an essential part of the forecast development process I use up here on the summit. And it should be expected, as this is home to some of the World’s worst weather! I’m sure the details of the trips will be worked out going forward as well. But at least we all got to witness first hand, that even when the conditions “aren’t that bad”, well, they really can be “that bad” after all.

Thank you to the Snowcat drivers for all of your hard, exhausting work these past few days battling the conditions. And thank you to our trip leaders and participants for your patience with the adverse conditions. All of you are greatly appreciated, and hopefully we’ll see you up here soon!

Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist

The Wonders of the World

2019-02-16 07:42:12.000 – Jay Broccolo, Summit Intern

When I woke up this morning, knowing I was going to write a blog post today, I had no idea what I was going to discuss. I played with the idea of discussing the weather, but I figured there are plenty of outlets for that happen through our forecasts, FB live events, and social media, to mention a few. I made my coffee and headed up to the weather room remembering that the skies had cleared before I went to bed, so there was still a chance to catch the sunrise. I like to go outside on the observation deck or up to the tower first thing in the morning for a couple of reasons, whether there is a sunrise or not. One reason is that it is important to see and observe the current conditions before looking at any models runs or giving any kind of forecast. Instruments and weather models are super helpful, but instruments are dependent on them working properly and technology can fail. Forecast models are wonderful tools as well, but they use data input by thousands of different observers, instruments, and parameterization methods to assume dynamics because the equation governing fluid dynamics (the Navier-Stokes equation) is still unsolved. So, what the models do is forecast based on what is known and then they are validated to what happened and parameterization is then improved. I digress though, the other reason I go outside when I first wake up is honestly that hurricane force winds in below freezing temperatures wake me up much more efficiently than coffee does.

While outside I noticed a thin layer of clear skies, and I do mean thin. With winds from the South and a low-pressure system approaching from the west, moisture was heading into the valleys with a blanket of undercast surrounding the south section of the mountain. Above the summit, the skies were covered with altostratus clouds with cumulus clouds heading in and rising from the South. I could see a bit of pink shining through the sliver of clear sky, so I rushed down to my desk and grabbed my GoPro to record the sunrise through the sliver. It only lasted a few minutes but those few minutes were spectacular, as most times are up here on the summit. During those few minutes, I watched the clouds move in and out, blocking the light from the sun and then clearing to a bright pink hue. Some sections of the cumulus clouds were being lifted by thermals (columns of warmer air rising) creating these picturesque horseshoe clouds and other cloud formations (check them out below). While on the summit you are in the clouds and the upper-level winds, relative to the sea-level anyway. You experience all the dynamics that occur in the atmosphere that we normally observe from one perspective below. Water vapor that condenses as it cools and rises or evaporates as it moves into a region of drier air, winds accelerating or decelerating because of pressure gradients, compression, or expansion. Like what happens in a river when the same volume of water moves through a smaller space or vice versa. What I noticed, and this isn’t the first time I have thought of this, but as humans, we have always tried to organize chaos.

Admittedly, we have done a pretty good job considering how far we have advanced, but if every once and a while we stop, take a breath and observe the surrounding environment, even if living in a city, I believe that you can find the chaos that we try to not make so chaotic. Inevitably, it is impossible to control everything and sometimes, everything seems out of control. Whether it’s our employment, financial situations, our health, relationships with people, or whatever. I also believe that if you give in to the chaos, allow your environment to be chaotic and learn how to respond to situations rather than control what you don’t or even do foresee, there is an endless amount experience to be had. At the very least, you will experience the beauty of nature and what this planet has to offer. I am not saying to go put yourself in danger, accept mistreatment, or to fly by the seat of your pants all the time. There are obviously situations where we need to prepare and have control, but there are plenty of situations where we try and control a situation or environment because it is beneficial to us at that moment or we ‘feel’ that it should be a certain way. There is a balance to everything, therefore we have opposites. There are births and deaths, rises and falls, good and bad, love and heartache, positives and negatives. Without one, we would not know or be able to experience the other.

With all of that said, let’s bring a close to this post. Its well known that if you can take yourself out of a situation and view it as an outsider, the insight you gain is invaluable. Observing nature and the dynamics that presides over all that we are aware of and unaware of is one way of doing just that. I, personally, have learned and experienced more in my short life from observing the natural world than anything or anyone else and I use it every day in my own interactions with the world. There will always be more to learn. I think this why I love Star Trek so much. The constant battle between control and being out of control, emotion and logic, and allowing ourselves to explore and understand. Be open and accepting. I have connected with our environment and ultimately the people around me on much deeper levels and care less and less about superficial things (I quite dislike superficial things, to me, they are just distractions). Now, you may agree or disagree, and that is totally fine. As my extremely wise grandmother taught me, “it takes all kinds of people to make the world go around”. Clearly, it doesn’t, because, you know, physics, but you get the point. Without the different opinions and personalities that “make the world go around” I would have never gotten to where I am and for that, I am beyond appreciative.

“Live long and prosper,”

Jay Broccolo, Summit Intern

The Anything-But Calm Before the Storm!

2019-02-11 08:31:34.000 – Chloe Boehm, Summit Intern

The summit this weekend saw a pretty incredible wind event with a peak gust of 148 mph. Although the highest winds were on Saturday, Friday morning saw the most dramatic increase in wind speed. The winds jumped from 45 mph to 124 mph in just 7 minutes! For those of us working in the weather room, it seemed to come out of nowhere! One minute we could barely hear the wind at all, and the next, a roar of wind erupted.

(Picture of the wind gust on the Hays chart)

While the winds were impressive, what was almost equally impressive was the temperature change that was experienced at all elevations. Up on the summit we saw a temperature spike of almost two degrees while the base of the Auto Road (1600 ft) saw a temperature spike of about 7 degrees! The plots below give a visual representation of those temperature spikes.

This event was mostly likely caused by a downburst which accompanied the passage of the cold front. These downbursts are a sudden burst of wind towards the surface that commonly occur in rainstorms or thunderstorms. Although there was no thunder present at the summit, there was heavy rain. Since there was a cold front moving into the area there was warm air aloft, so as that air rushed towards the ground, so did a lot of warm air. This then caused the temperature spike both at the summit and the base. Another factor that is indicative of the incoming cold front is that before the downburst, the base was actually colder than the summit. The base temperature was hovering right around 30 degrees where the summit was right around 32 degrees. This layer of warmer air led to this temperature inversion and later resulted in freezing rain.

What started out as a moderate wind day Friday morning, quickly escalated, giving a good indication of what was to come!

Chloe Boehm, Summit Intern

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