News

Comparing Winter 2019 and 2020 to Date on Mt Washington 2020-02-06 13:30:40.000 - Tom Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   With half of our 2019-2020 winter season now behind us I thought I’d take a look at how Mount Washington’s data compares to our climate normals and put this season so far into a historical perspective. The winter across much of New Hampshire has felt like a pretty mild one, especially with last year’s impressive snow season fresh in our memories. There’s several ways to look at what constitutes a “successful”, or snowy winter season; with snowfall, snow depth, and temperature

A Quiet and Beautiful Week Two 2020-02-05 08:00:31.000 - Caleb Buchler, Summit Intern   My second week is finishing up and it was a much different (but still awesome) experience from my first week! In my first week, I was thrown into the lion’s den experiencing winds nearly at 120 mph on my third day here! This week, however, conditions were extremely “calm” by Mount Washington’s standards. We barely saw any gusts over any gusts over 50 mph all week until Monday afternoon! We had a weak high pressure ridge hanging out over New England for the first half of

From Crazy to Calm! 2020-02-03 14:34:14.000 - Ian Bailey, Meteorologist/Education Specialist   We’re coming up on the end of another shift here on the summit of Mount Washington. And I’ve got to say, this shift has been VASTLY different compared to our last one. Last shift was crazy! We had 100+ mph winds for nearly 3 days, temperatures well below 0 (and wind chills even further down than that), and lots of awesome groups coming up for trips all weekend. It was certainly and whirlwind, pun intended. But this shift has been much more mellow! Just what we needed after

Volunteer Trip #6 - 2020 2020-01-31 13:41:38.000 - Jeffrey Swanson, Summit Volunteer   As my 2020 volunteer trip to the Mount Washington Observatory comes to an end, I am again thankful for the opportunity to contribute to the operations of this organization.     We started our week with a pair of teachers involved with the Artic Wednesday programs. They worked with the observer team on a live presentation to their respective classes. Next, an overnight Edutrip that included a combination of lectures, And finally , we concluded our week with an overnight hiking group. Ira Seskin and I have

A Week of Winds and Welcomes! 2020-01-21 12:33:23.000 - Ian Bailey, Weather Observer/Education Specialist   Oh boy. What a wild week it has been. Being down an Observer always puts quite a large amount of strain on a shift, with the 2 observers working nearly double their work load. So we certainly do miss Adam. But of course, we hope everything is going well in his new position. Centennial Birthday Board from AMS this year! Jay and I came back on shift on the heels of the Centennial AMS conference in Boston. It was a wonderful experience overall! We met

My First Shift on the Summit 2020-01-19 10:10:36.000 - Caleb Buchler, Summit Intern   Hey! My name is Caleb Buchler and I am the other winter intern at the Summit. I graduated with my second bachelor’s this past spring from Salisbury University with a degree in Geography/Atmospheric Science. I grew up on the east coast my whole life in Fenwick Island, Delaware and, as an avid surfer, always had a fascination with winter Nor’easters. Nothing gets me more excited than strong coastal low bringing snow and swell. It has been a goal of mine to spend a winter (and hopefully

A Turn for the Snowy In Our Future? 2020-01-13 09:12:47.000 - Thomas Padham, Weather Observer/Education Specialist     Brief clearing following the storm on January 12th revealed what was left of our snow.    After seeing record-breaking warmth on the summit over the past weekend and a huge reduction in our snowpack, it looks as though the longer-term models are showing a turn for the snowy. We certainly could use the snow, with only 3” of mostly solid ice as an average for our current snow depth. This snow cover is deeper in more sheltered areas and in between the

Hello from the Summit of Mount Washington! 2020-01-10 13:35:22.000 - Eve Cinquino, Summit Intern   Hello from the summit of Mount Washington! My name is Eve Cinquino, and I am one of the winter interns here at the Observatory. I’m originally from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and I’m so happy to be joining the team this winter and sharing my experiences with all of you! On January 8th, I took my first Snow Cat trip up to the summit. We all piled in to the Observatory’s Snow Cat and enjoyed a relatively uneventful (although bumpy) ride up to the summit. We stopped

My short time here on the summit! 2020-01-07 11:23:27.000 - Nicholas Rousseau, PSU Summit Intern   Hi, my name is Nicholas Rousseau, and I am a research intern from Plymouth State University. It has been thrilling to spend the past 10 days at the Mount Washington Observatory. During my time on the summit, I worked with the observers learning about the operations here at the observatory and working on a research project for Dr. Eric Kelsey. The research project I have been working on involves understanding why the summit of Mount Washington is warming slower than lower elevations of the

Final Week on the Summit 2019-12-27 08:40:19.000 - Adam Gill, Weather Observer/IT Specialist   This week is my last week here at the Summit of Mount Washington. I have been here for almost 4 and a half years and have experienced many storms as well as learned many new skills. My fascination with the Mount Washington Observatory actually began many years ago when I was still in grade school and we had to watch the Voyage of the Mimi, which was a kids show that was aimed at teaching science. One of the episodes came up to the summit of