Governor tours summit of Mount Washington

By Gail Scott

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch and First Lady Dr. Susan Lynch sampled Mount Washingtons famous winter weather Monday. They and a caravan of observers crept up the Auto Road in three Snowcats for a day of exploring the summit and facilities in a mild snowstorm.The Lynchs were particularly interested in climate changes observed over the Mount Washington Observatorys 72-year-old history during their first tour of the summit weather station. They also heard about the State Parks relationship with the observatory and changes in the wind at the summit, following a fire of the winter of 2003 that destroyed the generator building that has yet to be replaced. Before the fire, observatory personnel had been responsible for maintaining the facility during the winter, State Park Manager Mike Pelchat said. Subsequently, a state employee has been on hand during the winter to deal with maintenance issues. The state is also considering purchasing 9.4 acres at the summit from Dartmouth College and has hired an appraiser to determine the value of the land, he said.Pelchat explained that a Dartmouth graduate, Col. Arthur Teague, had developed the Cog Railway and had left the land, minus the Cog route, and including the summit acreage to Dartmouth College. Teagues heirs owned the railway. In the 1960s Dartmouth College had tired of maintaining the summit properties and sold most but not all of the summit acreage to the state for a state park.The Lynchs listened attentively to Pelchats history and to his suggestion that the mountain destination for about 300,000 visitors a year would be a suitable replacement for the Old Man as New Hampshires icon. In a brief slide presentation, Pelchat traced Mount Washingtons long history as a popular tourist destination. Popular as it is with visitors from around the world, the State Park still finished 2005 $141,000 in the red, Pelchat said, but the goal is to improve business practices to eventually be self-supporting while still providing services to residents that may not necessarily ever be reimbursed services such as mountain rescue and maintaining a haven at the highest point in New Hampshire.At the end of the day, the governor said he was intrigued by the relationship of the park with the observatory and the history of the summit as a tourist mecca. He said that he and his wife would like to come back and ski down the Auto Road.And, as snow flakes wafted down from the sky, he said he was glad they hadnt gotten stranded at the summit. Dr. Lynch said theyd had a ball and she was sorry they hadnt gotten stranded.The mountain was relatively gentle for the governors visit. The temperature hovered at 15 degrees Fahrenheit. The wind at 35 mph was nothing to brag about, unlike last Mondays 142 mph wind that knocked down the Pine Mountain transmission tower.First stop after the group reached the summit in the morning was the observatory weather room where David Balfrey, one of the facility's professional observers, described the functions of the wall of recording instruments, including a case containing a few old-fashioned instruments such as a barometer, a psychometric calculator and a psychrometer, a hand spun device that registers humidity. Balfrey suggested it was a good idea to keep the old faithfuls on hand, just in case the more modern automated instruments failed.The observatory is proud of its consistent weather record for all the years since its establishment year-round at the summit in 1934: first housed in a car barn, then in its own building, and, since 1980, in the concrete and steel Sherman Adams building. The Sherman Adams building was constructed in a joint effort by the state and the observatory, according to Pelchat. Of the $600,000 building cost, the observatory supplied $100,000 to create the rooms now used by the weather station.From the weather room, the daily weather reports are issued that thousands of radio listeners hear. Every morning the broadcasts are transmitted, some by phone and some by digital record, sent by email, and some by short wave radio, said Balfrey. Neil Lareau, the voice of the Mount Washington Observatory weather these days, was on hand to help answer questions, too.The observatory regularly works with the Plymouth State University meteorology program, incorporating interns in the work of the weather station while they prepare their own study papers, said Peter Crane, program director for the observatory, introducing student intern Andrew Zollo. Zollo explained to the visitors that he has been using the instrumentation and observatory research facility in Bartlett to interpret how water vapor may affect GPS transmission.The weather room at the summit also houses the audio-visual set-up that connects to its North Conway building and can be used for teleconferencing, most lately with Cub Scouts from North Conway who wanted to ask questions of the real weathermen on the summit.The work tracking the sources of air pollutants being done by staff scientist Emily Fischer in the observatorys Bartlett Research Center, particularly interested the Lynchs. Working with research being done at sea level by the University of New Hampshire, it is possible to get a picture of layers of air in the Northeast, Fischer told the group. Among other things, Fischer, a chemist, can track where air samples have come from in the previous 72 hours. She showed a graph, mapping the routes taken by pollutants across the U.S., particularly from the south and the midwest. High levels of ozone on the mountain now beginning to affect hikers occur particularly on days when the wind is from the west and southwest, Fischer said. In her ozone testing, she said that the sources of the problem are primarily car exhaust, animal emissions, and power plant emissions. She noted, too, that when there had been a drought in China several years ago, dust from China was traceable in air wafted to Mount Washington from the west. The observatory has a 20-year ozone record for the summer and for the past six years has been collecting ozone data year-round, a unique and valuable historical record, Fischer pointed out.Fischer said that over the past 75 years there has been a consistent warming trend in the winter, with more rain, less snow and a smaller temperature range overall. As a research chemist, she declined to predict what the future might hold. There are modelers at UNH, she said, implying that they are the experts to consult about the future, but she reiterated that the winter warming was consistent over time in the past 75 years.The group toured the weather tower, climbing to the highest point on the mountain where visibility was minimal in a snow storm. Still, because of the recent mild weather, the deck on top of the Sherman Adams building was partially clear.Pelchat had opened and warmed the restored Tip Top House, the summits oldest building. Although the outside of the rock structure was heavy with rime ice, the inside was cozy. Visitors could imagine what it might have been like to stop at the Tip Top House when it was new in 1851. First a stop at the bar for some oh-be-joyful and then a simple meal in the dining room, cooked by the proprietors wife and then a night on wooden bunks with moss for a mattress and the close company of 11 strangers, all for the outrageous sum of $1 a night and $1 a meal.Pelchat gently herded the group back into the three Snowcats and down the mountain in the early afternoon before too much snow had accumulated on the upper reaches of the Auto Road and while the wooden road markers were still obvious above the snow.Gail Scott is a reporter for The Berlin Daily Sun.