Wind

[Wantabe]

Wing guage messed up?

[Brad]

Wing guage messed up?

Either that or there was quite a calm that came over the summit.

[Wantabe]

It jumps from none to over 120....if that were true, it would be wild.

[Bill O]

It appears they have lost data from the primary anemometer.

This text in the METAR pretty much explains it all: EST WND SPD

I'm not saying somebody jinxed it, but I'll refer you to some recent observer comments. With that said, the up time this winter has been amazing. Considering the extreme weather conditions their uptime probably beats many automated stations.

[KD Talbot]

Observer comments on the home page explain what's going on up there.
KDT

[Bill O]

Observer comments on the home page explain what's going on up there.
KDT

They just confirmed the problem, but didn't explain much of anything.

[KD Talbot]

Well yeah, I'll give you that. Regular maintenance. I doubt I'd understand if they got more technical than that, anyway. Can you tell us what it involves in layman terms? You must have been through it once or twice. Oops. Sorry, I guess they said UN- routine maintenance. Maybe they hit it a little too hard with a crowbar?
KDT

[Mike D]

Well yeah, I'll give you that. Regular maintenance. I doubt I'd understand if they got more technical than that, anyway. Can you tell us what it involves in layman terms? You must have been through it once or twice. Oops. Sorry, I guess they said UN- routine maintenance. Maybe they hit it a little too hard with a crowbar?
KDT

Ice! Doesn't that summarize every problem on Mount Washington? Ice, and of course the high wind that delivers ice to every place you don't want it.

[KD Talbot]

OK! Now ice is something I can understand! High wind, too! Thanks!

I had the same problem with my windows during the storm that they had in the bunkroom, although I have to admit, on a lesser scale. Still amazing to see what wind driven snow can do.
KDT

[Bill O]

Here's your answer:

Our primary, heated pitot wind speed recorder has developed an ice jam that has been difficult to dislodge. Ice is common up here, jams are not! And while regular observations continue, our backup systems do not feed directly to the website database. Once every three hours though, an unheated backup pitot is mounted to the lines for the primary pitot, which allows for some database continuity, hence the dramatic spikes on the current conditions chart. The staff will be working diligently this morning to attempt to free the jam...which may require brief removal of the instrument entirely...

Certainly nothing to be ashamed of. The NWS has multi-million dollar radars that go offline for weeks...they break. And these are the same radars that protect people from tornados.

Remember, it's the worst weather in the world, it is going to cause problems every now and then.

P.S: Nice to see some archived photos making it into the observer comments.