Mount Washington famously lays claim to the world’s worst weather. Now, a new project from the Mount Washington Observatory will allow people to monitor that weather more closely.
Last week, the observatory unveiled a project to expand the Mount Washington Regional Mesonet, a network of weather monitoring stations. There are 11 original stations in the network. Right now, 22 stations are active.
Funding from the Northern Border Regional Commission is helping to add to those numbers and update existing stations. Over the next four years, the observatory says they’ll expand the network to about 36 stations.
The first five of the new stations are along the western side of the mountain along the route of the Cog Railway. But the observatory plans to expand stations across the state, starting in the North Country.
The stations are set up on big tripods and powered by solar panels. They measure things like solar radiation, temperature, humidity, wind speed and soil temperature, sharing that data in real time.
That data can be used by weather forecasters, scientists and search and rescue teams. But Jay Broccolo, the director of weather operations at the observatory, said it’s also important for the public.
“Can we think of an industry or a job or anything that's not affected by the weather, whether it comes down to insurance or supply chain or what you're wearing that day?” he said. “Weather affects us all.”
Broccolo said the network expansion is particularly important because weather is a resource for New Hampshire, especially for one of its top industries: tourism.
“We think of tourism as the snow, but what creates snow and what creates skiing? It's the weather. That is what creates those tourist attractions, the phenology that brings up so many people during leaf peeping season,” he said.
The network will help scientists and businesses better understand the weather driving tourism in the state, he said.
Keeping weather stations running in harsh conditions can be tough work. Keith Garrett, the observatory’s director of technology, said the expansion is starting on Mount Washington along the Cog Railway as a kind of trial period, using a space that’s familiar – though prone to ice and wind that’s difficult for stations to withstand.
Garrett said he expects one station, located just below the summit of Mount Washington, to be half destroyed by spring.
“It's part of the learning process,” he said. “Iterating through designs as fast as we can to try to come up with something that is robust and can survive this environment.”
Lessons from the station on the mountain could help Garrett and his team build out stations in more remote areas in northern New Hampshire. Stations are planned as far north as Second Connecticut Lake.
