Outreach Blog

Ah, Spring.  This is the time when “April showers bring May flowers”.  Ha, that’s funny.  The only showers we seem to be getting up north are snow showers.  Technically it’s spring, but up hear in the North Country we still have plenty of snow…welcoming spring skiing, of course.

Recently, I was visiting a school in W. Newbury, MA.  When I left the school it was approximately 3PM, overcast and a temperature of 64 degrees F.  While I traveled back up to North Conway, NH I would frequently glance at the temperature read out in the Weathermobile.  Gradually, the temperature was dropping. It’s logical. Right?  If you travel north from MA to NH it will get colder. But, on this day the temperature dropped from 64 degrees F to 45 degrees F in just two hours while traveling north.

Oh, and did I mention the wind?  While we were wrapping up the program we could hear the 15 to 20 mph winds moving through the trees outside of the classroom.  What an effect…after all we were just talking about some of the most extreme wind speeds.

On this day there was a low-pressure system moving northeast.  As this low pressure departed a high-pressure was moving in, generating high winds. That evening, on the summit of Mount Washington, winds were sustained over 100 mph.

This was April 1, a.k.a. “April Fools’ Day,” but when it comes to weather there is definitely no joking around.

Michelle Cruz

Outreach Coordinator

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