A letter from Mt. Washington

Peter, our guide on the mountain, wrote me “ We've gotten almost 3 feet of solid precipitation (snow and sleet) and have had winds up to 136 miles per hour. Yes, it would have been great to have been there for that marvelous show of nature's fury, but indeed it would have been most inconvenient to have been stuck on the summit if you had previous commitments to be elsewhere.

In speaking with Observer Neil Lareau today, he noted that about 20 minutes after we left on Saturday, the temperature fell, winds picked up, and frozen precipitation started to fall. Timing is everything!

The weather - and the condition of the Mount Washington Auto Road-- is affecting our planning for our weekly shift change. Mount Washington State Park used a snow tractor on the upper part of the Road today, and suggested we should visualize January, rather than October, when thinking of current conditions.”