Catching clouds from NYS’s highest weather station

Whiteface summit plays key role in statewide network of research stations

By Tom French

From the first fanfare of Leo Arnaud’s “Bugler’s Dream” at the start of ABC’s Olympic coverage in 1980, as the helicopter approached and circled the summit of Whiteface, you knew that rime-covered silo with antennae and atmospheric devices poking into the sky, seemingly the peak itself, was iconic. Only a decade old at the time, its weathered, cedar shake already looked like it had been there for hundreds of years.

The University at Albany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC), the Whiteface weather station, was first established at the former Marble Mountain Ski Lodge in 1961, a year after the ski center closed, but measurements at the summit were taken as early as 1937 through the World War II years when New York University and RPI establish a meteorological station that made measurements year-round with scientists spending winters in an old engineering shed built for the road construction and then at the Roundhouse, also known as the Summit House. Fire observers at the summit tower may have been recording information as early as 1909, according to Doug Wolfe, retired operations manager.

Vincent Schaefer, a founding father of ASRC, reestablished meteorological measurements at the summit in the warmer seasons beginning in 1957, adding to long-term historical datasets still utilized today by climate scientists around the world. Year-round observations returned when the summit observatory was added in 1969/70.

Today, ASRC scientists drive or snowmobile up the Whiteface Veterans’ Memorial Highway and utilize the tunnel and elevator shaft to reach the top – in winter climbing the 27 stories of stairs that wrap the elevator. The information they collect is available in almost real time on the internet.

ASRC maintains a second New York State Mesonet (from the word mesoscale or middle scale) weather station at the old Marble Mountain Ski Lodge – a network of 126 weather stations across the state. Part of a NYS Early Warning Weather Detection System operated by the University at Albany, the network began in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Lee (2011) and Hurricane Sandy (2012), storms that caused over six billion dollars in damage and several deaths. Utilizing a FEMA block grant, funding from New York State, and other sources, the network was completed in 2018 to provide a wide range of meteorological parameters for weather prediction models that support forecasters and decision-makers for extreme weather events. 

“A lot of states are doing this as climate changes and economic impacts are being felt,” according to Paul Casson, current operations manager.

The weather stations host an array of instruments that measure over three-dozen parameters such as temperature, humidity, and wind speeds at various elevations and heights along with particulates, pH, solar radiation, soil moisture and snow depth. “We’re also trying to put some weather stations at the ski center because they have power and communications up the mountain.”

Casson explains how the Mesonet measures not only the amount of rain, but intensity. “Did it fall in two days or two hours? That has big ramifications on the landscape and people’s lives. Soil moisture and snow water equivalent (how much water is in the snowpack) can have a significant impact during extreme weather events. It’s the difference between Sierra cement or fluff. If you have a 40-inch snow pack with a lot of water and we get a rain storm in January or February, look out, because that’s got nowhere to go.”

Pollutants are measured by pulling air across a series of filters. “That goes back to 1983, and we’re part of the Clean Air Status and Trends Network mandated by Congress in 1995 that assesses the effectiveness of pollution controls.”

The summit catches “long-range transports” while the base site reflects more local sources. “We don’t have much industry in the Adirondacks, but a lot has changed with global emissions. We get stuff from China.”

Instruments measure trace gasses such as sulfur dioxide from volcanoes and methane from fracking near the Southern Tier. The data shows the seasonal curves of carbon dioxide from the respiration of plants. “We have a lot of trees. When they sprout in the spring, all of a sudden, the photosynthesis fires up and changes the composition of the atmosphere.”

In 2023, they gauged the effects of the Quebec wildfires. “Our black carbon values (the sooty byproduct of combustion) are typically between 50 and 90 nanograms per cubic meter at the summit, but it was over 2000 during the Quebec events when the high pressures were holding it down like an inversion in winter when you see the wood smoke in the valleys.

“Some of the urban areas were worse than us. That’s why Kathy Hochul visited ETEC (The University at Albany’s new, state-of-the-art Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex). The state is keenly attuned to this, which could be good for us.”

The facilities are financed through a mix of grants, direct government support, and specific research projects, but piecing it together is a constant challenge. A cloud study started in 1994 recently lost funding, and some government agencies request data without providing financial support. 

Casson is enthusiastic about the potential for more science and public use of the Marble Mountain facility. Built from hand-scribed spruce logs salvaged from the “Big Blowdown of 1950” after the original 1948 lodge burned to the ground, the ski center lost money from the start. High winds funneled down the slopes, blew away the snow, and scoured the trails. By 1955, a new site was under consideration. Marble Mountain closed in 1960, two years after today’s Whiteface opened. 

In addition to ASRC offices, the lodge includes a large great room with a stone fireplace that is used for the summer Falconer Lecture Series and other events, though the fireplace is capped now because of the nearby science instruments.

“I could see it being used as a hiker center in the future. People naturally come here because of the trailhead for Whiteface and Esther. We’re always welcoming people to come in and check things out. It’s a community resource that could integrate the science with the recreation and tourism.

“A lot of hyper-overcrowding in the High Peaks is driven by social media. People want to take pictures of themselves on a high peak. Whiteface is the easiest one to get to and could be a great relief valve especially with a shuttle system.”

According to Science Manager Scott McKim, the winter of 2023 “was a real big winter for us” because the summit recorded its highest wind speed ever (121 miles per hour) and the lowest temperature (-40.2 °F) on the same day in February.

That may not seem too cold to many Adirondack residents, but McKim points out, “The coldest temperatures are actually down low in the valleys. On clear nights, you get ideal radiational cooling conditions and all the dense cold air goes to the lowest location whereas oftentimes the summit will be twenty to thirty degrees warmer.”

Doug Wolfe cautions armchair meteorologists not to get too comfortable with online data. “Don’t think you can sit down to your computer and look at this camera at the summit or get the data. We’re trying to beat the mountain, but some days the mountain beats us bad.”

Rime ice builds up on the sensors and equipment, and “occasionally, we got to go up and literally beat the stuff off with a pipe.”

Photo at top: The summit of Whiteface with the ASRC Weather Station Silo (constructed in 1969) on the left and Roundhouse, or Summit House (constructed in the late 1930s), on the right.  Photo Courtesy of the Olympic Regional Development Authority.