When One Door Closes…

2018-05-07 11:34:54.000 – Sarah Schulte, Summit Intern

When One Door Closes…

…then, well, you can’t get through that door. You’ve tried, but the lock is bolted, and you don’t know the secret knock, and I think Marty might have stolen the key. Luckily, there happens to be a convenient second door to your right that’ll take you to basically the same place, so what was the point of locking the other –

My metaphor is breaking down, and so, coincidentally, is my internship. This is my last week on the summit as a weather observer intern, but I’ve been given a key to a different summit door. I’ve been offered the position of summit museum attendant, which means I’ll be sticking around just a little longer, and I’m so stoked! Experiencing a winter atop Mount Washington has been fantastic, and now I have the chance to see its warmer side.

Before I was accepted for the intern position, I was having difficulty finding a job in my field. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do, and coupling that with a lack of job-seeking success made the job hunt a very discouraging endeavor. But when I came across the Observatory during my searching, it fit the bill for an opportunity I didn’t want to miss. Research, physical duties, forecasting, public interaction, extreme weather, blog posting, an unfamiliar environment…this was the way to gain experience in many different aspects of a meteorologist’s job. For someone like me, who had begun to lose interest in the field and didn’t know which way to go, this was perfect for testing the waters, giving me a confidence boost and re-igniting my interest in weather.

 

During my four months as an intern, I’ve seen and done so many firsts that I’d lose your interest if I listed all of them. Just in the past four days alone, I’ve seen my first big thunderstorm and hail event on the mountain, gained a new sitting wind speed record of 130 mph and watched the Aurora Borealis! I even learned a new card game (courtesy of our awesome volunteers). During the more wintry weeks, I’ve climbed a snow drift that was over 10 feet tall, seen an undercast around the peaks and eaten rime ice. I’ve also stood on the tallest point in the Northeastern United States with a crowbar in 70 mph winds and beat ice off of what might be the only pitot tube anemometer of its kind in existence. If that’s not a unique intern task, I don’t know what is!

Living on a mountain peak for a week or so at a time wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable without good people to work with, and I consider myself fortunate to have had the chance to work with some incredible observers. My heartfelt thanks to Tom, Taylor and Ryan for answering my questions (even the dumb ones), teaching me so much about meteorology, mountains and the Northeast in general, and also for putting up with me for four months! Hopefully, you can survive a few more months, as I’ll be returning with the same crew for the museum position. I’ve also loved getting to know the volunteers and the staff at the valley offices, and I’m glad that I don’t have to say goodbye just yet.

 

Working at the summit has given me new appreciation for the Observatory and its mission. Having come from a relatively flat place outside of New England, I don’t think I fully understood just how important the Observatory is for hikers, weather enthusiasts and recreationalists in the White Mountains. When some of our overnight guests told me about how they’d read my forecasts or heard them over the radio, or read my blog posts, or told me how much they loved weather in general, the importance of the Observatory’s work really began to sink in. It’s great doing work you love, but it’s even better knowing that it helps people.

Summing up such an incredible experience isn’t easy, but I’ll try to wrap things up. My internship door has closed, but the summit museum’s doors will be opening very soon! I’m looking forward to seeing the mountains in the summer, climbing one for Seek the Peek (I’m with the Cirrus Contenders) and getting into the groove of my new job. It’s wonderful to see other people get excited about the weather, the Observatory and everything in between. Thank you to everyone who listens, reads and visits; you make me smile! Come visit us this summer, and stop by the museum to say hi!

 

Sarah Schulte, Summit Intern

Chaos During the Facebook lives

2018-05-02 09:36:05.000 – Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist

Being short staffed has not been too big of deal so far since we are in between the summer and winter season so the work load is a bit less. The one thing that is being affected is our Facebook lives that we do on the weekend. If any of you joined us for our Friday Facebook live, you would have noticed that there was a distinct lack of sound. Back when Mike Carmon was on our shift, I did all the behind the scenes controlling and could monitor the video. Now it is much more of a challenge trying to control what is going on as well as being on camera. This Friday, while moving the computer into a position where I could be on the webcam as well as move through all the scenes, the microphone came partially unplugged so from our end, it had power. We did not realize until almost half way through the show that the sound was not actually getting picked up and exported to the video stream.

Saturday luckily went ok without any issues and we were able to go outside without any problems but Sunday the camera decided to disconnect as soon as I went outside. Luckily our intern Jill was able to keep the live going with the forecast discussion as I rushed back inside to get the camera going again. The second time was the charm and what had happened was the connection was lost in the tower. With 2 foot thick steel reinforced concrete walls it makes it difficult to get any sort of signal into the tower! I did not run fast enough up the stairs, guess I will need to get my running shoes on and practice!

The plus side is that for every one of these mistakes, something new is learned. With the sound issue from Friday, I know to test to make sure that the microphone is picking up sound. I was doing that when we first started the lives many months ago but became too overconfident. With the camera issue, I need to set up the camera outside so it is already set up and won’t lose connection. With summer this will not be too hard because it is much warmer outside and will not drain the battery of the camera. We still need to find a better winter solution though!

Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist

An Earth Day Poem

2018-04-22 09:26:19.000 – Sarah Schulte, Summit Intern

It’s a world that’s unlike any other.

For observers, it’s great fun to ride to the heights,

To experience all kinds of weather!

to cheer when the winds gust with might

If our record speeds start to look hazy,

we’re crowding the Hay’s Chart all night!

and rime ice that feathers the ground

You’d best not rule out a stray snow-shower;

the Rockpile gets them all year round!

there are so many stars you can spy

The Atlantic can shine with orange morning light

 Auroras may dance from on high

There’s nowhere quite like it but here

Lovers of weather and wonder, rejoice!

 For Earth Day, we let out a cheer!

What about the Earth brings you to smile?

The fields of bright flowers, the birds in the skies,

or the thunder of waves in the isle?

or the gemstones that sparkle and shine,

the plants that we grow and the food that they bring,

or the people with whom you share time.

treat with care all the joys that abound.

We all share Earth’s wonder; we all call it home.

And there’s only one like it around!

 

Sarah Schulte, Summit Intern

Spring Around the Corner?

2018-04-17 20:08:15.000 – Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist

With how cool the weather has been across much of the country, many are looking ahead to see when more spring like conditions will begin.  First, why has much of the eastern United States been seeing such cool weather when we had such warm conditions in February and early March? Well in the overall synoptic flow (Large scale weather patterns larger than 1000km across) there has had consistent blocking high pressure over Greenland, which creates a deep trough (Dip in the jet stream) resulting in cooler than average temperatures. Figure 1 below is a plot of the 500 millibar height anomalies for the northern hemisphere over the past month. The warm colors over Greenland and the colder colors over Canada are a good indicator of the persistent blocking that we have been seeing over the last month.

 

Higher than average snowfall in March and early April has recovered the snowpack lost in the February melt and then some. In Figure 2 and 3 below, snow covers much of the interior North East as well as the Great Lakes region to the Hudson Bay. With northwest flow due to the persistent blocking pattern, air masses are originating from over the deep snow pack. The snow helps insulate cold air as it moves south by both reflecting incoming solar radiation with any heating from the sun going into melting the snow, keeping temperatures near freezing. If there was bare ground, the air mass would heat up during the day as the sun warms the ground and transfers that heat to the atmosphere above it. With how strong the sun is at this time of year, any snow free ground would quickly warm a polar air mass and take away its chill.

 

 

The good news about this map is that there is not much snow to the south and southwest of New England. Once the weather pattern changes and we get a few days of southerly or southwesterly flow, the snow in the North East will quickly melt, exposing the bare ground to the sun to really start our spring season. We would need a weather pattern with southerly flow to bring in the warm air with sunny skies to last long enough to melt a vast majority of the snow in the Great Lakes region and southern Canada. This will give us a good buffer from the colder air masses as they travel out of the Polar Regions. Losing all that snow won’t necessarily mean that we will be free from the cold weather but the amount of time that it will stick around will be greatly reduced.

Looking ahead in the short term, we will have another colder storm coming in keeping below normal temperatures into the weekend, but beyond that is much more promising for warmer weather. In Figure 4, I have a plot of the 500 mb height anomalies expected early next week. It is a long way out so I am using an ensemble of model to get more of a mean out of a bunch of different model runs with different parameterization to help reduce error in the long range. Looking at anomalies also gives a better idea on if we are going to see a better chance of warmer or colder weather rather than looking at specifics like precipitation or expected high temperatures.

 

With those darker oranges over New England, there is good agreement that a warm up is on its way. We will have to see how much snow and ice this warm up will melt! This late into spring, it is possible that after this weekend southern and coastal regions of New England will have seen the last of below freezing temperatures until fall! Up here on the Rockpile, we are prepared to see winter for another few months of winter! We can see snowfall up here in any month of the year!

Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist

Vernacular Confusion (The Sequel!)

2018-04-06 10:42:31.000 – Sarah Schulte, Summit Intern

“We’ll never survive!”

“Nonsense! You’re only saying that because no one ever has!”

Wesley and Buttercup, The Princess Bride

It’s time for more Vernacular Confusion! Don’t worry; it’s not going to be as scary as it sounds. Maybe I should have led with a different quote…

Vernacular Confusion is where I go over meteorological terms that might be misunderstood or misused. Part 1 of Vernacular Confusion had a definite winter vibe to it, so this time I’m going to go over some warmer terms. It is Spring, after all (whether or not it feels that way up here at the Rockpile is unimportant). Let’s get to it!

Pineapple Express/Atmospheric Rivers

Just to start things off, I want to clarify that Seth Rogen and James Franco have nothing to do with this. In meteorological terms, the Pineapple Express is an example of a strong atmospheric river. According to NOAA, atmospheric rivers are “narrow regions in the atmosphere that transport much of the moisture from the tropics to the northern latitudes”.

The Pineapple Express is an atmospheric river that transports moisture from the tropical Pacific (near Hawaii) to the West Coasts of Canada and the United States. The Pineapple Express can drop up to five inches of rain on California in a single day. Not all atmospheric rivers are strong, and their precipitation can prove beneficial to water supplies, but those with the strongest winds and largest moisture contents can cause severe flooding due to extreme rainfall.

 

Diagram of the Pineapple Express from WeatherNation.

Gulf Stream

Let’s move to the East Coast and talk about the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream is a current of tropical water that starts in the Caribbean and flows up along the Atlantic Coast. It wraps around Florida and follows the coastline up to the North Carolina Outer Banks, where it takes a more eastward path farther out to sea.

 

NASA image of Sea Surface Temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf Stream is the curl of warmer temperatures along the East Coast.

Ocean-air interactions are a vital area of the study of weather. As stated by LiveScience, “the Gulf Stream affects the climate of the areas closest to the current by transferring tropical heat towards the northern latitudes”. Just as atmospheric rivers transport moisture from the ocean, the Gulf Stream transports heat. This keeps the coastline waters of the southeastern states much warmer than those of the West Coast.

Heat Lightning

Sometimes, particularly in the summer, you might see lightning without hearing the accompanying boom of thunder afterwards, or notice a flash without seeing a cloud-to-ground bolt. The term ‘heat lightning’ is often attributed to this phenomenon. NOAA posits that the term arose because this phenomenon happens most often on warm summer days.

In actuality, ‘heat lightning’ is no different than the lightning from any other storm. As stated by NOAA, “it is possible that you might see lightning and not hear the thunder because it was too far away”. The sound of thunder can only be heard at a distance of about 10 miles from the flash. Seeing a muted flash instead of a lightning bolt is due to interference from ground features or the curvature of the earth. Instead of seeing the bolt, you merely see the bolt’s reflection off the clouds.

 

Distant lightning captured by FOX 25 Storm Tracker Bobby Hines from okcfox.com.

A rose by any other name would still smell sweet, however, so a lightning show by any other name will still be pretty! Just take care to watch these natural shows from the safety of a secure building.

Sarah Schulte, Summit Intern