Observer Comments

16:11 Thu May 15th

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…” the first line in Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem, The Raven.

It’s the only thing I can think of when I look out the window. Granted, it’s not midnight, I’m neither weak nor weary, and I’m not in particularly pondering state of mind, however it is severely dreary. I think that will be coded on our next observation, in the Present Weather column. It is raining with some extremely dense fog, at one point I could barely see twenty feet in front of my face. This is a somewhat different experience than yesterday’s weather, which included 130 mile vistas, cloudless skies, and an abundance of sunshine. Whereas yesterday, some of the crew took advantage of the fair weather and ventured on a hike, today some inside activity will prevail. A board game, a movie, possibly some cribbage.

One of the most important qualities required in a person who resides on the summit is the ability to remain indoors for some lengthy periods of time, in conjunction with the ability to keep oneself entertained. Days like these make this sentiment crystal clear. Hiking is not really an option when cairns are not visible, and when it’s cold and rainy. Playing catch on the deck might work, if you stand really close to the other person. This is the perfect day to curl up on the couch with Marty by your feet (if he feels so inclined to grace you with his presence) with a novel or the complete works of the aforementioned author. I think, come five o’clock, this is precisely the activity I will be participating in. Hopefully Marty agrees and will thoroughly enjoy the timeless classic written by Victor Hugo, about an ex-convict, a saintly bishop, borderline evil inn keepers, and an innocent girl and her mother. I know I will.

Stacey Kawecki – Meteorologist

18:27 Wed May 14th

Brrrrrrrr

Today marked the quickest and smoothest accent of the Road Blog has some good pictures and videos of the hard work that they have been doing to get to road in shape for everyone to come visit the summit.

I was fortunate enough to get out for a hike today and enjoy the beautiful weather while heading towards Mt. Monroe and down to Lakes of the Clouds Hut . I was greeted by the familiar sound of sedge blowing in the breeze and throughout the hike it remained gratefully restless. Colors of green and brown were blending as the new replaces or reinforces the old. There is still a long way to go in this process. Most of the snow has melted off the summit, especially on the west side , with only a few patches remaining in addition to some of the larger long lasting snowfields. Water was still running subsurface for the most part and there was an apparent audible difference from that of a few weeks ago in late April. In some areas the water would surface, running over the rocks and splitting into small streams following the contours of the land only to disappear and then reappear when you least expected it.

With all that beauty there must be a beast. The beast in this case is bug season. Winds were nearly calm for a few hours today and this was indeed the case. The nice thing about being on the summit is that you can always count on the wind to clear out the pests sooner or later.

Kyle Paddleford – Meteorologist

16:28 Tue May 13th

View looking north.

While packing my bags for my second volunteering stint at the Obs I was considerably more relaxed than last October. During that stay I had the oppurtunity to experience many of the conditions Matt has explained and shown in his comments. As there was the first snow of the coming winter, 2 days of being in the fog resulting in incredible rime ice and hurricane force winds.

On Tuesday evening my feelings changed and the excitement rose as I headed up Rt 16 and viewed the East Snowfields on the summit. On arriving at the summit Wednesday morning and the comings and goings of shift change the images of the snowfields were pulling me outside. Shortly after the previous week's volunteers headed down, so did I. I have skied Tucks many times but have never been to the Snowfields and this was the perfect chance under blue skies and light winds. After a couple of runs I was blissfully breathless.

It has been a wonderful week up on the summit. The past 7 days have seen 100 mile views, skiing, a hike over to Mt Clay where I saw the chutes into Great Gulf, another skiing must and the evening meals with a great crew, where we all get to sit down together for the first time all day for dinner, jokes and some fun. Plus, this past Sunday, a glorious day, I took a nap on the rocks outside the Obs while gazing out towards the Northern Presidentials and waiting for a friend to make his way up the Jewell Trail.

So as I get ready to head back down after 8 days on the summit the words of Austin singer/songwriter Jimmy LaFave are with me:

"Every dream or treasure
That you're hoping to find
It's out there waiting for you
It's just a matter of time

Things are changing
They're rearranging
And to help you on your way
Is this glorious day
This glorious day"

They all really are glorious up here, no matter what the weather.
I hope to be back to experience it again and hope others can too.

Paul Goundrey

Summit Volunteer – Summit Volunteer

22:33 Mon May 12th

Lenticular Clouds

When I found out that I was going to be an Intern at the Mount Washington Observatory, I thought I knew what to expect weather-wise when it came to high winds, arctic temperatures and loads of snow. Among the traditional cold weather gear needed to be fully prepared for a weeklong stay at the home of the world’s worst weather, I packed my camera with hopes of capturing amazing winter scenery. Sure enough, that’s exactly what I experienced. However, that was the extent of my meteorological expectations. Little did I know that I would get to witness a wide variety of meteorological phenomena that I just happened to learn about in my undergraduate studies.

Currently, I am on my seventh shift up at the Observatory. Over the past few months I’ve taken around 500 pictures which include several different types of optical phenomena and unusual cloud formations. In this Observer Comment, I will show you some of the best of the best in my collection.

Crepuscular Rays:
This optical phenomenon occurs when clouds partially shadow the sun’s rays. We are able to see the unobstructed rays of light due to haze in the atmosphere which scatters visible light toward the observer.

Lenticular Clouds & Cap Clouds:
Perhaps one of the most interesting clouds to view, lenticular clouds, or altocumulus standing lenticularus, form as a result of turbulence caused by air being forced to move up and over mountains. Under stable atmospheric conditions, large-scale standing waves tend to form lee of the mountains. Lenticular clouds may form at the crest of these waves if the air is forced up high enough to cause adiabatic cooling and eventually condensation if there is enough available moisture. Cap clouds form by a similar process with the exception of their location. These types of clouds set up directly over a mountain and do not propagate, thereby capping the mountaintop. The picture I took of a cap cloud is from the perspective of under the cap rather then the traditional distant profile view.

Undercast:
The last picture in Part 1 of my photo gallery is of a very common cloud formation that is seemingly mundane to those who view it from below. However, overcast skies can create a beautiful and awe-inspiring scene given it is below you with clear and sunny skies aloft. An expanse of low stratus clouds that are below the observer’s elevation is referred to as undercast. These clouds are frequently seen at the Mount Washington Observatory due to the station's elevation 6,300 feet above sea level. Though undercast is a common occurrence up here, it never ceases to amaze me, especially when it is embellished by the warm red-orange glow from a sunset or sunrise.

Stay tuned for part 2 of my Unusual Weather Phenomena Photo Gallery coming soon!

Matthew Morin – Space Grant Intern

16:24 Sun May 11th

Now that I have been living on or around Mount Washington for almost a full year, I think that I have decided that this time of year is my second favorite. When I lived in Pennsylvania, fall was my second favorite season. What time of year has the title of my favorite you ask? Well, the heart of winter of course; it always will be.

I actually just came to this conclusion today while I was climbing back up the East Snowfields this afternoon. I took a break from work to enjoy the gorgeous day and do a bit of skiing. I was able to get two runs in and get back to the Sherman Adams building in one hour. Not too bad.

But I digress. So, as I was hiking back up from my second run I was realizing how great this time of year is when you live either on or around Mount Washington. Sunny, calm, and relatively warm days happen with more frequency, but at the same time there is still tons of snow left for skiing. In my opinion, it doesn’t get a whole lot better than skiing abundant, soft, corn snow in a long sleeve shirt and light shell pants. The avalanche danger and the concern of rock hard snow of mid winter are not but a memory at this point. However, spring skiing on Mount Washington does bring about its own dangers, which are talked about fairly thoroughly on tuckerman.org.

The only depressing thing about this time of year is knowing that it will inevitably come to an end. The same reasons I enjoy skiing this time of year are gradually making the snow disappear. In the matter of a few more weeks, the East Snowfields will be bare rock and the alpine flowers will begin to bloom.

But that’s ok. I still have several weeks of good spring skiing left on the mountain, and I will always have my now third favorite season to look forward to in a few months: Fall.

Brian Clark – Observer

17:27 Sat May 10th

Conference Room

Now that warmer temperatures have arrived we are starting to test out the summer weather instruments in anticipation of placing yet more strange devices on the tower. The picture, to the right, shows the current state of our conference room after Brian and I took the Taylor heated rotor anemometer apart earlier today. This is a rugged wind speed and wind direction measuring instrument that has not seen use for quite some time now after one of the rotors, lower left in the picture, was damaged. After several hours experimenting we can now run the heaters and simulate wind speed pulses on the oscilloscope. Tomorrow we are planning to attach it to a field point unit up in the tower then, all being well, attempt to log some data to the database – should be interesting.

We have also started working on building a new pitot anemometer, to replace the existing one, which has been in continuous use for several years now. The static pitot anemometer is our main year round wind speed measuring instrument. It is a custom made device similar in concept to what you’d fine on the wing, or fuselage, of a plane to measure its airspeed.

And if this isn’t enough we are also assembling an electric field meter. This instrument should eventually give us prior warning of approaching electrical storms. Its been a busy week so far.

As a side note we also saw several Cog trains today, the first this shift has seen this year. Looks like summer is coming!

Steve Welsh – IT Observer

23:09 Fri May 9th

Auto Road in May

Today was not a normal day at the office. In fact, no day here ever is. However, on this day I had a special task which would require brawn rather than brain. The weather was just about perfect for what I was planning. At 11 am, the temperature was around 40°F, winds were light by summit standards, and skies were partly cloudy. Perfect spring hiking weather! Rather than programming for hours on end or analyzing 1.5 million lines of temperature data, I had the opportunity to step out of the office. I needed to hike from the summit down 1,000 vertical feet via the Auto Road. That might sound amazing to some people, but it’s really not. The walk only took 25 minutes which included frequent stops to take care of another task that I was given.

At the request of the Director of Summit Operations, I stopped during my hike to set up wooden poles that had fallen over along the Auto Road. These poles are needed in certain locations as a guide for hikers and vehicles in dense fog or any other type of visibility limiter.

This hike was required so that I could visually inspect the 5300’ ARVP site. Each site, with the exception of the summit, has two collocated temperature sensors for use in the Auto Road Vertical Profile (ARVP). I noticed early on in my ARVP research that this site (and possibly other sites) had frequent disagreements in temperatures reported by each sensor. I created a graph of an example of the difference between each sensor’s reported temperatures. Archived weather data shows that sunny skies coincide with larger differences. This leads me to believe that there is a radiation problem for one of the sensors. Each sensor has a radiation shield which is supposed to alleviate such issues. However, a dirty shield will have a lower albedo (ability to reflect sunlight) than one that is clean. My hope was that all I would have to do is clean the shield and all would be well with the temperature data. Ultimately, that wasn’t the case.

When I reached the 5300’ site, I had a flashback of the first time I hiked to this location back in February. The snow was now mostly gone and in its place was lichen-covered rocks with patches of sedge. After I was done taking in the scenery, I got back to the task at hand. I carefully cleaned the radiations shields with isopropyl alcohol. I was a little concerned about how little dust there was. I then had a feeling that this wasn’t the cause the disagreeing reported temperatures. Therefore, I inspected the site for other potential causes of inaccurate data. I found and noted a few of my new suspicions.

After a tiring one hour brisk walk back up the Auto Road, I was back in the office pouring over more ARVP data. Though my efforts today did not solve the original problem, they did help in providing more clues that will be used to further investigate this issue. Also, I’m currently feeling great thanks to the workout I received from my little hike.

*For a brief description of the Mount Washington Auto Road Vertical Profile (ARVP), visit http://www.mountwashington.org/weather/arvp/.

Matthew Morin – Space Grant Intern

03:12 Thu May 8th

April 2nd, 2008 was the last time I stepped foot on the summit of Mount Washington, NH. Flash forward roughly 35 days to May 7th, 2008 and my return to an altered summit. Rest easy though, the summit itself remains as true as it did when I left. It still rises to the notable 6288 feet as always and the buildings remain steadfast. It is the weather and the climate that have changed. Let me relate what I mean:

April 2, 2008: The high temperature for the day was 17 above which occurred around 1 am that day before decreasing through the day to about 10 above when I left. It snowed about an inch and there was about 5 inches of snow covering the entire summit with deeper drifts, accumulated from the past season. Winds during my last shift and on the trip down were gusting to 100 mph. We rode the snow cat from summit to base with about 3-4 feet of snow on the valley floors. The auto road had cleared snow from about a quarter mile of road at the base in preparation for their opening date. Almost all the ski resorts around the summit remained open. Everything visible from the summit (about 120 miles) was coated in white with near record snow pacts remaining from this season. My house in Berlin, NH had about a foot or two of snow around it. In short, the tail end of winter. Clothing: Down jacket, thermal underwear, wool socks, winter boots, snow pants, goggles and gloves.

May 7, 2008: The high temperature for the day was 40 above with a low of 26 above occurring around sunrise. It was raining during most of my shift. The snow pack…what snow pack? The summit has a few tiny blotches with streaks visible on the surrounding summits. Most of these streaks, although shrinking, will remain into next month though as these packs are very deep. But the even blanket of white visible across our five state viewing area has been replaced with a neon green hue as trees begin to bud. The auto road is practically clear and is actually open up to half way for tourists, but check their site before planning a trip. We drove from base to summit in our van with chains and four wheel drive to get through the mud and patches of snow that still remain to be cleared but everything looks to be on schedule. I was told the cog started coming up last weekend, which agrees with their website. The state park side of the building is painted and lacquered with tables and chairs ready for their opening day with a few more chores to do. All surrounding ski resorts are closed despite the ribbons of snow that remain, but Tuckerman Ravine still looks good (snowbladed it last Monday, but that’s another story). My house has flowers blooming and this morning, I was kicking myself for not mowing my lawn yesterday. Clothes: Hiking pants, soccer shirt, wool socks, summer boots.

So, hopefully this paints a picture of the changes I saw and felt. But, I remember the wise proverb I learned in junior high: “A picture is worth 1000 words.” So, I took 8 pictures to show the view from our parapet the week before I left and today when I returned. The 8 pictures represent North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, and Northwest. And in case you are wondering why I took these pictures before I left, it was not a coincidence. I usually formulate what I am going to write in these observer comments days, weeks, or months before I write them. I just jot down ideas and snap pics that I think might be useful and fun to use in the future. But I may delve into that in another comment. So listed below are the directions I took the pictures as well as a label of “Winter” and “Spring” to show the contrast.

North
Winter/ Spring

Northeast
Winter/ Spring

East
Winter/ Spring

Southeast
Winter/ Spring

South
Winter/ Spring

Southwest
Winter/ Spring

West
Winter/ Spring

Northwest
Winter/ Spring

Ryan Knapp – Staff Meteorologist

07:00 Wed May 7th

no words necessary

Winter returned to the Summit for our second trip as volunteers to the Rockpile. It was great to see the crew again. However, the look on their faces when they discussed the return of winter after a two week hiatus was one of understandable resignation. Back to winter gear for the trip up. We were blessed with beautiful views until we hit near the peak and the snow cat was required for the final leg of the journey. This was a wish answered for my husband Mike and me as we wanted to experience the fun of going up in the snow cat. Wayne’s expertise was greatly admired as we hit a few unexpected washouts in the road from the previous day precipitation.

The week proved memorable with a potpourri of visibility somewhere just beyond your nose, offset by glorious sunsets and 100 mile views of mountain majesty. We were able to get in a couple of days of hiking. Traveling down the Tuckerman ravine trail on dry boulders one minute and across bright and sunny snowfields the next was memorable. The need for wearing your sunglasses while traversing the snow fields was driven home permanently. The view of the bowl from Lion’s Head provided entertainment sporting ant like creatures on skis having a fine time.

Back at the bunker water restrictions were in force at this time secondary to the tanks not being pumped out during the winter months. Hat hair and a protective crust is the norm for the folks pulling duty this time of year and showers the most anticipated and joyous moment when one comes down the mountain after a week of work.

Food preparation is a joy up here and the opportunity to provide nourishment and goodies is a treat for those who volunteer. I’m convinced that anything we served the crew would be met with smiles and they would say it was the best they’ve ever eaten but it’s the silence at dinner when they first dig in that makes you realize they truly do appreciate all that the volunteers provide when they come up to help out. The fun for us is sitting around the table listening to all the good natured bantering after spending a whole day working with the weather.

No report would be complete without the mention of the latest full time obs member, Marty. Marty rocks, he is awesome and be warned…one must be careful of where they sit when he is around. Stealth kitty army crawls over the chairs while they are positioned under the table, several of us when sitting down for a meal have been more than a little taken aback by the yellow eyes that suddenly light up from the “shadow” that has parked itself on your anticipated seat. I swear I could hear him quietly giggle as the sitter almost connected with the sittee.

It’s a beautiful day to head out and back to the real world but with a measure of sadness too. Ryan Buckley, the summit intern will be leaving the Rockpile to return to life as a student at Wentworth Institute for Technology in Boston and as all have told him, he will be missed. Good luck Ryan, may the winds be always at your back!

Mike & Sue Zlogar – Summit Volunteers

06:38 Tue May 6th

I'm working nights this week. It has been quite a lot of darkness, hardly able to see the A-frame when I walk outside. We spent a few days in the fog, and that coupled with the fact the moon was rising in the wee hours of the morning and was approaching new moon, made it very dark.

Yesterday morning, just after my shift ended at 4:30 AM EST, we moved in and out of the clouds for sunrise making for some ephemeral moments. Not long after, we broke out of the clouds revealing a partial undercast, brilliant sunlight, and brisk (but invigorating) temperatures at 36 degrees. Sunlight has an interesting effect of giving one energy, and I was now wide awake. Wide awake and off shift…the only option I really had was to go for a hike, because I clearly couldn’t go to bed. So I hiked on down to Ball Crag, hopping from rock to rock, avoiding the alpine vegetation covered in white rime ice. In time, I made may way down to near the Alpine Garden, when I noticed I was getting sleepy. I’d been up since 2:30 the previous afternoon, so that made good sense. I also happened to be in an area with calm winds and a nice flat rock, so I set out my half pad and rested back on my pack as a pillow, catching a half hour or so of sleep in the alpine tundra, the sun nearly causing me to overheat. When I woke, I walked over to some snowfields, figuring they would be faster to descend on, and glissaded on down. As always, this was quite a lot of fun. I wandered on over to Cow Pasture so I could catch a glimpse into the Great Gulf, since I had been looking towards Tucks all morning. Hiking through Cow Pasture, I followed a dilapidated wire fence and old posts. This led me to an interesting rock – an erratic perched atop a commoner. I then walked home, falling asleep by 11:15 in the morning.

Ay, but the story does not end there…I woke up to find Kyle wanting to head to the East Fields for a few runs, and as I had walked by them that morning, knew I couldn’t really pass up the opportunity myself. In another month or so, I would do anything to take a run down those slopes, so I left myself few options than to go. There was not a track on the frozen granular surface until we laid a few long turns down it. Conditions were favorable to booting back up as well, so I made one more run for good measure.

I then hiked over to see Kyle, Stacey, and Michelle who were hanging out atop Ball Crag. We took in the views among good company, then hiked on…to home for some, to work for others. Now I’ve worked another full night and it’s 6:30 on another beautiful day. However, I’m pretty tuckered, so I think I’ll just head to bed and count some sheep. I love ewe.

Mike Finnegan – IT Observer

13:14 Sat May 3rd

“What’s it like being the only girl on the summit?”

This was the question asked of me by one of our volunteers this week. For some, I think living on the summit, in the winter, with boys might be a trying experience. None of us shower for the duration of our stay, due to the limited waste water storage (ick, cooties). I must admit, there have been some occasions when I’ve wished there was another girl up here. For the most part, it’s just like living with three brothers; sometimes I have to put the seat down and pick up dishes, but the overall feeling is one like a family. I grew up a tomboy, hanging out with my brother and his friends. We would go on adventures in the woods, play baseball and basketball, go fishing and biking. Getting dirty was never an issue with me, and the lack of girls never bothered me. In middle school I played kickball with the boys and was always the first girl chosen to be on sports teams.

There are certain rituals that take place before I walk into the summit building. The first is that I mentally turn off the female part of my brain. This is so I don’t get offended by the copious gaseous expulsions and the smell of not showering for a week. Then, I settle in for a comfortable week as one of the boys. (This is particularly funny, due to a mistake on my current license). There is a fair amount of good-natured teasing and bickering and B-grade action movies. All in all, it’s good fun, but it certainly is nice to turn the “girl” back on when I get off the summit.

Stacey Kawecki – Observer

15:06 Fri May 2nd

A bit hazy, but a nice start to the day!

It has been a pleasant day upon the summit this lovely Friday the 2nd of May. Temperatures have been hovering near the freezing mark and winds have been light and variable. Halos increased and decreased in intensity with the ever morphing upper level ice crystal clouds. Sunglasses have replaced goggles and snow pants are hanging on the clothing racks. It may be just a tad below freezing but the strong spring sun is more than enough to overcome a slight chill in the air during the afternoon hours. The snow is melting slowly but that has not stopped people’s spring skiing ambitions. Ice from the most recent storm is starting to come down but some structures have not yet shed the bulk of it. Keep that in mind if you plan to hike to the summit. Luckily most of these problem areas are not ideal resting spots or great places to picnic anyways.

In other news, two State Park trucks made it up to the summit earlier today with four wheel drive and chains. Some of the washout areas along the 6 mile that we saw during shift change on Wednesday have been repaired allowing for improved travel. The Auto Road will open this Saturday for it’s 147th season and allow travel up to treeline. For more details visit their website. To see how the whole process unfolded and what work still remains check out their Road Blog for stories, pictures, movies, and comments.

Kyle Paddleford – Meteorologist

07:39 Thu May 1st

Temperature: 8 degrees F

Wind: W 71 MPH

Wind Chill: -23 degrees F

Visibility: 1/16 mile

Weather Conditions: Freezing fog, light snow, and blowing snow

These were the conditions when I checked the Mount Washington Observatory’s website just before leaving my house to drive to the base of the Auto Road. I quickly threw on a pair of snow pants, ascertained that I had my hat, gloves, face mask and goggles before starting my car and heading north. 7.2 inches of snow fell on Tuesday, and the summit was once again covered in a blanket of white.

This was quite a change from last Wednesday, when we recorded a new record high temperature and only patches of snow, many puddles, and lots of miniature rivers littered the summit cone. Even though we are supposed to understand that weather on Mount Washington is, at best, fickle, I think we all were hoping for a slightly warmer welcome to the summit. With May here, I think we were all just a little disappointed that snow pants and insulated boots would once again be adorned and Carhartts and sneakers put on the hook for another day. Even though it’s a little chilly today, it won’t be long before the sounds of the Cog Railway chugging up the tracks, cars driving up the Auto Road, hikers and tourists milling about the building overcome the sounds of winter.

Stacey Kawecki – Observer