News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reflections on Drought, the Dust Bowl, and the Ghosts of Tom Joad 2020-06-29 20:56:45.000 - Nate Iannuccillo, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   With Mt Washington currently 5.12” shy of its average monthly rainfall for the month of June in spite of significant rains the past couple days (check out our data for the month of June here), much of the state of New Hampshire has been experiencing moderate drought over the course of the past couple months, and as a result, I spent my first week on the summit reflecting on this climatological state as it pertains to human culture and

So Long Mount Washington Observatory! 2020-06-22 15:38:58.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   It’s crazy to think that it has been 2 years since I returned to the Observatory as an Education Specialist. What’s even crazier, however, is that this will be the last blog post I ever write as an Observer. This Wednesday, I will be heading down on Shift Change for the last time, and bringing my time at the Obs to a close. I have mixed emotions about leaving for sure. While there have been both highs and lows to my career as an Observer, I