Mt. Washington’s cog railway at Lizzie’s station.
The Inside Scoop
Chapter 39
Where’s Summer?
The Gulf Stream Connection
Mt. Washington, NH
May 26, 2025
Sylvia couldn’t believe it was Memorial Day Weekend. The Carriage Road leading to the summit of Mt. Washington was lined with rime ice and fog. A small sign read Mt Washington Weather Observatory. She knocked on the door.
S. “Dr. Blaisdale I presume?
B. “Nope Betsy Blaisdale. How was your drive up here?”
S. “Fine, but I can’t believe you’re having freezing weather in May.”
B. “Ours is not a mountain to take lightly. We used to hold the record for the strongest wind ever recorded on earth, and it is not uncommon for our winter temperatures to reach 50 degrees below zero. Plus, we have had more cold related deaths than almost any mountain in the United States.”
S. “Why’s that?”
B.” Well two things. We are close to major cities like Boston and New York so we get thousands of hikers every year, plus our weather is extremely variable. Just down the slope from us there is a plaque to Lizzie Bourne who died in a freak snowstorm in mid-September.
S. “What happened?”
B. “It was a warm day at the bottom of the mountain so her party only had summer clothes, and at about 4 pm they were safety at the halfway house.”
“So, they could have spent the night there?”
“Yes, but they decided to push on to the top so they stumbled on in the approaching darkness as the temperatures plunged and a cold fog descended. Exhausted they finally stopped and Lizzie’s uncle built a rudimentary stone wall around Lizzie and her cousin.”
S. “Did that work?”
B. “No at 10 pm Lizzie’s uncle grabbed Lizzie’s hand and found it cold and lifeless. When daybreak finally arrived, they realized they were only a tantalizing couple of hundred yards from the safety of the Tip Top lodge near where we are standing.”
S. “That’s so awful.”
B. “Yes, there have been more than 160 deaths on this mountain several of them during the summer months.”
S. “But why are we getting this cold weather in May. Aren’t we in an era of global Warming?”
B. “We are, but these conditions have a lot to do with the weather over Iceland.”
S. “How do you know that?”
B. “We keep track of all the other weather observatories around the world and for the past few weeks it has been over 80 degrees in Iceland.”
S. “How come?”
B. “Our concern is that this could indicate that we are approaching the earth’s most dangerous tipping point, much earlier than scientists had originally anticipated.”
S. “What’s that?”
B. “The collapse of the North Atlantic current system that moderates so much of the earth’s climate.”
S. “Why is that happening?”
B. “Greenland is melting so fast that there is a great pool of fresh water in the North Atlantic. Normally the Gulf Stream’s dense, salty waters sink in that location which pulls more warm waters north. But the warmth over Iceland could indicate that the system is breaking down much faster than we thought.
S. “When do you expect a complete collapse?”
B. “We used to think it would take as long as a hundred years. But a new study just came out that it could happen in as little as two years.”
S. “Is there any chance we can stop this from happening?”
B. “Only a massive, abrupt turn toward green energy.”
S. “Like what Biden had started?”
B. “Yes but now that is all but lost. Trump’s Big Beautiful Budget Bill will put an end to that, and we will continue to see accelerating floods, storms, tornadoes, heat waves and hurricanes.”
S. “So your Mount Washington might be a refugia for northern species.”
B. “Or the canary in the coal mine for a planet made uninhabitable by humans.”
S. “So this may be the Memorial Day for what we are about to lose.”
B. “Sadly yes.”