![]() ![]() Elmo's fire, the greenish-bluish light produced as discharges on metal objects during thunderstorms. They have watched the northern lights, the Hale-Bopp comet, shooting stars. Observers here have seen the rare green flash the instant before the sun drops out of sight. Mountains are fine natural observatories for seeing simple, beautiful things. Cold rain drenches the valley as sleet, freezing rain and snow fall higher up the mountains. The nine weather students hike downhill a couple of miles on the icy road, their spiked boots gripping the ice, until they are picked up one by one by the snow tractor.ħ a.m. Five hours later, zero-visibility fog covers the top. Visibility is close to 90 to 100 miles on the summit, although the scenery is blue skies and white clouds.ġ2: 30 p.m. A predicted storm holds off, but fog obscures all mountains except the top of Mount Washington as the sun rises. The peak is called the Rock Pile but rime hides it well.ħ: 15 a.m. Wind gusts slap faces at 40 mph on a sharply etched, 17-degree day as a Snow-Cat carries the weather students to the summit. The weather was always on the move:ġ1: 30 a.m. ![]() The crystal-clear air made the glistening snowpack on the Presidential peaks seem as near as arms' length. Instead of the thrilling winds and cold they had expected, the visitors had sun-splashed views, impossible during storms. The mountaineer John Muir called the Sierra Nevada the Range of Light, but for two days so were these White Mountains. They enjoyed two days and one night on the summit, where average January wind is 46 mph, average temperature is 3.9 degrees and wind chill is near minus 40. For $365, they wore Arctic layering, walked outside, were buffeted by winds, got windburned cheeks, checked weather instruments, listened to meteorology lectures and slept in observatory bunk rooms. He was the leader of an observatory "EduTrip" seminar on mountain weather for nine weather fans. Caribou, Maine, was 55 below zero recently," jokes Tom Zicarelli of Bethel, Maine. "I don't know how they can claim this is the worst weather in the world. It isn't always "the world's worst" as the staff says, partly in memory of April 12, 1934, when the wind hit 231 mph, the strongest recorded. Yet weather can change quickly on this frosted summit at 6,288 feet.
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