Week 4: Pre-trip Blog
Kirk Niese
Mt. Ararat Middle School
Topsham, ME
Background:
Jason Knight and I are both science teachers at the Mt. Ararat Middle School in Topsham, ME who share common interests in fleece vests, black coffee, free stuff, and, of course, anything in the world of physical and natural sciences. Jason’s undergraduate and graduate background in wildlife biology has taken him from the forests around the University of Vermont to the frozen taiga of the University of Alaska Fairbanks where he studied hibernation physiology. It was once so cold in Fairbanks that the front tire of his pickup truck discovered its limits and separated from the rim while underway with the low-temperature elasticity of a hockey puck. He has since gotten that fixed. An avid fan of the White Mountains, Jason has climbed to the summit of Mt. Washington in both summer and winter. His humor is dry, his appreciation of cold temperatures is infectious, and he is, for sure, the near-perfect colleague that one comes across only a few times in one’s life.
My background in physical geography started at Syracuse University and through summer programming with the University of Colorado’s Institute for Alpine and Arctic research where I was fortunate to spend the better part of a summer canoeing through the Canadian Northwest Territories and Nunavat. Later on, I continued to pursue my love of environmental studies as a graduate student living in the sub-arctic wilds of New Jersey. I’ve been fortunate to have been able to spend a fair amount of time frolicking and blistering in the mountains of Maine and New Hampshire including, most recently, a couple of summiting experiences of both Mt. Washington and Katahdin this past summer with my 11 year-old daughter.
We’re middle school science teachers and we generally don’t ask for much…but when the opportunity to participate in the Mt. Washington Observatory’s Arctic Wednesdays arose, we jumped at it. Jason and I are both weather nerds at heart and study both weather and climate change with our students. For us, Arctic Wednesdays was a natural fit: a program that would give us a hands on experience with the observers of MWObs that we could then share back in our classrooms with our students. We applied to be a part of the experience, were accepted, and without hesitation, our principal Josh Ottow found the funding to support us. We are truly grateful for his enthusiasm of science and the support that he gives all of his teachers.
Our research:
When challenged with the task of coming up with an experiment or project to bring to the summit with us, we debated for a while. I’ll speak for Jason here by saying that he and I would love to have an unlimited amount of time on the flanks of Mt. Washington to study the migration of the flora at tree line and to see if a correlation exists between our warming global temperatures and the success of various plant species in establishing themselves in the alpine ecosystem. Knowing that we had only a short window of opportunity to make our way up and back from the summit Observatory, our focus shifted to something more measurable in the short term.
With the help our exceptional school nurse, Naomi Mullane, we decided that we would do a comparative study of our vital signs both at 70’ above sea level (the approximate altitude of the Mt. Ararat Middle School in Topsham) to see if the changes of a few hundred hectopascals or hPA, (1 hPA=1 millibar or mb) would have any effect on heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, and blood pressure. We knew that our findings needed to be easily measured and that our tools needed to be accessible and easily transported. With our trip date scheduled for Wednesday January 9th, we began our work.
Vital Signs/ Altitude Induced Peripheral Edema:
The average barometric pressure at sea level is approximately 1013 hPA whereas because of the changes in barometric pressure in altitude, the average barometric pressure on the summit of Mt. Washington at 6,288’ generally falls in the high 700’s to low 800 hPA range. It has long been recognized that extreme altitudes (in excess of 8,000’) are associated with barometric pressures low enough to cause some altitude-sickness (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema or HAPE and High Altitude Cerebral Edema or HACE). Additional physiological changes such as peripheral edema (swelling of the extremities) can take place with increases in altitude particularly in the first 12-24 hours of exposure. Also, with the decreases in barometric pressure comes a decrease in atmospheric oxygen: something that may cause fatigue, shortness of breath, and decreased blood oxygen saturation at higher altitudes.
The question that Jason and I had was “Was Mt. Washington’s altitude of 6,288’ high enough to cause a measureable change in our vital signs and to cause a measureable amount of swelling in our extremities? “
We set out on December 13th and again on December 21st to measure and record our vital signs including blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, and blood oxygen saturation levels. An enthusiastic internet search offered no suggestions as to how altitude induced peripheral edema could be measured and so we set off to develop our own methodology.
After a quick trip to Freeport Maine’s NAPA auto part store, we acquired what we were looking for: a stainless steel automotive dial caliper. This instrument, while designed to measure the thicknesses of engine cylinder walls and valve clearances, had the capability to measure the effects of altitude on peripheral edema. Deciding that measuring the diameter of our faces would be challenging with beards, (faces often visibly swell with altitude) and knowing that taking our boots off inside of the Mt. Washington Observatory might be considered cruel and unusual punishment for the Observers, we decided to measure the thicknesses of our middle knuckles on all of our finger. The calipers were metered with the minute increments (.001”) that would be required to see if there were any changes in the thicknesses of our fingers’ middle knuckle diameters with decreasing barometric pressures.
Our initial findings at 70’ above sea level:
On the two separate dates when we took our vitals and measured our knuckle widths. In a fairly controlled setting in a room (70˚F inside temperature) on two separate days, we did not see any significant changes in blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate or blood oxygen saturation levels from one day to the next despite the fact that barometric pressure on December 13th measured 1034 hPa compared with 1003 hPa on December 21st. My blood oxygen levels were, however, low enough (97-98%) on both days to cause me to visit my primary care physician about asthma.
However, the diameter of our knuckles did see measurable, if not necessarily significant, changes of a few hundredths of an inch. Predictably, with a change in barometric pressure of 31 hPA from the first day to the second, we saw some increase in finger knuckle on the lower pressure day. If there could be a measurable difference in knuckle diameter with the change of 31 hPA, we predict that we will measure an even greater increase in these diameters when we take our calipers to the summit of Mt. Washington.
Workshop in Severe Arctic/Alpine Weather Delayed…by Severe Arctic/Alpine Weather:
Our scheduled date to meet with the Observers and Educators of the Mt. Washington Observatory was rapidly approaching. Our preliminary research was underway and our summit gear bags had been assembled. With winter parkas, multiple synthetic mid-layers, insulated snow pants, -40˚F rated boots, gaiters,balaclavas, ski googles and insulated mittens assembled, we were both ready to go…until we weren’t.
On January 2nd, 2019, as part of my regular compulsive checking of the weather on www.windy.com, the ECMWF model was forecasting that a significant low pressure cell would be moving over northern New England on January 9th and 10th potentially foiling our summit bid for that day. A significant amount of precipitation was forecasted for Wednesday the 9th and the compressed band of isobars on the back side of the storm hinted at very high winds and potentially poor visibility for what could have been our backup day, Thursday January 10th.
We emailed Brian Fitzgerald and Will Broussard, educators extraordinaire, to see what their thoughts were about all of this. The irony was not lost on us. We would potentially have our trip to study extreme arctic and alpine weather delayed…by extreme arctic and alpine weather.
As we all expected, when the models firmed up the week of our planned trip, Brian and Will wisely decided that the window of opportunity for our trip to the summit would be so small so as to warrant a reschedule. Wednesday, January 30th would be our new date and we are just as excited as ever.
1/27/19:
Today is Sunday, January 27th, 2019 and we are closing in on our new date. With fingers crossed (and carefully measured), we will depart from my driveway in Pownal , Maine in just a few days. With snow again in the forecast, we are hoping to depart at 5 am on the 30th with a full tank of gas, enough coffee to keep us chatty, and hopefully enough time to make the snowy drive to the base of the Mt. Washington Auto Road where we will greet our Snow Cat operator and the new shift of meteorologists who will be starting their work week. Stay tuned!
2/12/19:
Today is Tuesday, February 12th, 2019 and we are closing in on our newer new date. Another Wednesday storm delayed our trip again. And another Tuesday/Wednesday storm is blowing in as we speak. Fortunately, our next attempt is still a week out, February 20th. This date is in the middle of our February break, so it gives some added flexibility to our schedules. Just in case. Hopefully the weather will cooperate just enough to allow the re-re-scheduled trip to happen!
Update 2/18/19:
Just returned from a 24-hour jaunt to Vermont by way of Crawford Notch which afforded me an incredible view of the summit of Mt. Washington. The snow pack is DEEP throughout the notch which made me think that the ravines on the flanks of Mt. Washington are similarly filling up! We are just two days away from our newly assigned date. Tomorrow, we’ll pack our summiting gear, lay out/pack our instrumentation so that we can add to our research findings on Wednesday. Speaking of Wednesday, the ECMWF model suggest that we’ll have clear, cold weather for our trip. Temperatures at the base of the Auto Road are forecasted to be at or a little below 0˚F with a widely spaced pressure gradient and a barometric pressure of ~1035 hPa. It’ll be interesting to see how what I imagine will be a fairly calm day at the base translates into wind speeds at the summit. Game on!
Respectfully submitted, Kirk M. Niese
Mt. Ararat Middle School
Topsham, ME
Background:
Jason Knight and I are both science teachers at the Mt. Ararat Middle School in Topsham, ME who share common interests in fleece vests, black coffee, free stuff, and, of course, anything in the world of physical and natural sciences. Jason’s undergraduate and graduate background in wildlife biology has taken him from the forests around the University of Vermont to the frozen taiga of the University of Alaska Fairbanks where he studied hibernation physiology. It was once so cold in Fairbanks that the front tire of his pickup truck discovered its limits and separated from the rim while underway with the low-temperature elasticity of a hockey puck. He has since gotten that fixed. An avid fan of the White Mountains, Jason has climbed to the summit of Mt. Washington in both summer and winter. His humor is dry, his appreciation of cold temperatures is infectious, and he is, for sure, the near-perfect colleague that one comes across only a few times in one’s life.
My background in physical geography started at Syracuse University and through summer programming with the University of Colorado’s Institute for Alpine and Arctic research where I was fortunate to spend the better part of a summer canoeing through the Canadian Northwest Territories and Nunavat. Later on, I continued to pursue my love of environmental studies as a graduate student living in the sub-arctic wilds of New Jersey. I’ve been fortunate to have been able to spend a fair amount of time frolicking and blistering in the mountains of Maine and New Hampshire including, most recently, a couple of summiting experiences of both Mt. Washington and Katahdin this past summer with my 11 year-old daughter.
We’re middle school science teachers and we generally don’t ask for much…but when the opportunity to participate in the Mt. Washington Observatory’s Arctic Wednesdays arose, we jumped at it. Jason and I are both weather nerds at heart and study both weather and climate change with our students. For us, Arctic Wednesdays was a natural fit: a program that would give us a hands on experience with the observers of MWObs that we could then share back in our classrooms with our students. We applied to be a part of the experience, were accepted, and without hesitation, our principal Josh Ottow found the funding to support us. We are truly grateful for his enthusiasm of science and the support that he gives all of his teachers.
Our research:
When challenged with the task of coming up with an experiment or project to bring to the summit with us, we debated for a while. I’ll speak for Jason here by saying that he and I would love to have an unlimited amount of time on the flanks of Mt. Washington to study the migration of the flora at tree line and to see if a correlation exists between our warming global temperatures and the success of various plant species in establishing themselves in the alpine ecosystem. Knowing that we had only a short window of opportunity to make our way up and back from the summit Observatory, our focus shifted to something more measurable in the short term.
With the help our exceptional school nurse, Naomi Mullane, we decided that we would do a comparative study of our vital signs both at 70’ above sea level (the approximate altitude of the Mt. Ararat Middle School in Topsham) to see if the changes of a few hundred hectopascals or hPA, (1 hPA=1 millibar or mb) would have any effect on heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, and blood pressure. We knew that our findings needed to be easily measured and that our tools needed to be accessible and easily transported. With our trip date scheduled for Wednesday January 9th, we began our work. Vital Signs/ Altitude Induced Peripheral Edema:
The average barometric pressure at sea level is approximately 1013 hPA whereas because of the changes in barometric pressure in altitude, the average barometric pressure on the summit of Mt. Washington at 6,288’ generally falls in the high 700’s to low 800 hPA range. It has long been recognized that extreme altitudes (in excess of 8,000’) are associated with barometric pressures low enough to cause some altitude-sickness (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema or HAPE and High Altitude Cerebral Edema or HACE). Additional physiological changes such as peripheral edema (swelling of the extremities) can take place with increases in altitude particularly in the first 12-24 hours of exposure. Also, with the decreases in barometric pressure comes a decrease in atmospheric oxygen: something that may cause fatigue, shortness of breath, and decreased blood oxygen saturation at higher altitudes.
The question that Jason and I had was “Was Mt. Washington’s altitude of 6,288’ high enough to cause a measureable change in our vital signs and to cause a measureable amount of swelling in our extremities? “
We set out on December 13th and again on December 21st to measure and record our vital signs including blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, and blood oxygen saturation levels. An enthusiastic internet search offered no suggestions as to how altitude induced peripheral edema could be measured and so we set off to develop our own methodology.
After a quick trip to Freeport Maine’s NAPA auto part store, we acquired what we were looking for: a stainless steel automotive dial caliper. This instrument, while designed to measure the thicknesses of engine cylinder walls and valve clearances, had the capability to measure the effects of altitude on peripheral edema. Deciding that measuring the diameter of our faces would be challenging with beards, (faces often visibly swell with altitude) and knowing that taking our boots off inside of the Mt. Washington Observatory might be considered cruel and unusual punishment for the Observers, we decided to measure the thicknesses of our middle knuckles on all of our finger. The calipers were metered with the minute increments (.001”) that would be required to see if there were any changes in the thicknesses of our fingers’ middle knuckle diameters with decreasing barometric pressures.
Our initial findings at 70’ above sea level:
On the two separate dates when we took our vitals and measured our knuckle widths. In a fairly controlled setting in a room (70˚F inside temperature) on two separate days, we did not see any significant changes in blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate or blood oxygen saturation levels from one day to the next despite the fact that barometric pressure on December 13th measured 1034 hPa compared with 1003 hPa on December 21st. My blood oxygen levels were, however, low enough (97-98%) on both days to cause me to visit my primary care physician about asthma.However, the diameter of our knuckles did see measurable, if not necessarily significant, changes of a few hundredths of an inch. Predictably, with a change in barometric pressure of 31 hPA from the first day to the second, we saw some increase in finger knuckle on the lower pressure day. If there could be a measurable difference in knuckle diameter with the change of 31 hPA, we predict that we will measure an even greater increase in these diameters when we take our calipers to the summit of Mt. Washington.
Workshop in Severe Arctic/Alpine Weather Delayed…by Severe Arctic/Alpine Weather:Our scheduled date to meet with the Observers and Educators of the Mt. Washington Observatory was rapidly approaching. Our preliminary research was underway and our summit gear bags had been assembled. With winter parkas, multiple synthetic mid-layers, insulated snow pants, -40˚F rated boots, gaiters,balaclavas, ski googles and insulated mittens assembled, we were both ready to go…until we weren’t.
On January 2nd, 2019, as part of my regular compulsive checking of the weather on www.windy.com, the ECMWF model was forecasting that a significant low pressure cell would be moving over northern New England on January 9th and 10th potentially foiling our summit bid for that day. A significant amount of precipitation was forecasted for Wednesday the 9th and the compressed band of isobars on the back side of the storm hinted at very high winds and potentially poor visibility for what could have been our backup day, Thursday January 10th.
We emailed Brian Fitzgerald and Will Broussard, educators extraordinaire, to see what their thoughts were about all of this. The irony was not lost on us. We would potentially have our trip to study extreme arctic and alpine weather delayed…by extreme arctic and alpine weather.
As we all expected, when the models firmed up the week of our planned trip, Brian and Will wisely decided that the window of opportunity for our trip to the summit would be so small so as to warrant a reschedule. Wednesday, January 30th would be our new date and we are just as excited as ever.
1/27/19:
Today is Sunday, January 27th, 2019 and we are closing in on our new date. With fingers crossed (and carefully measured), we will depart from my driveway in Pownal , Maine in just a few days. With snow again in the forecast, we are hoping to depart at 5 am on the 30th with a full tank of gas, enough coffee to keep us chatty, and hopefully enough time to make the snowy drive to the base of the Mt. Washington Auto Road where we will greet our Snow Cat operator and the new shift of meteorologists who will be starting their work week. Stay tuned!
2/12/19:
Today is Tuesday, February 12th, 2019 and we are closing in on our newer new date. Another Wednesday storm delayed our trip again. And another Tuesday/Wednesday storm is blowing in as we speak. Fortunately, our next attempt is still a week out, February 20th. This date is in the middle of our February break, so it gives some added flexibility to our schedules. Just in case. Hopefully the weather will cooperate just enough to allow the re-re-scheduled trip to happen!
Update 2/18/19:
Just returned from a 24-hour jaunt to Vermont by way of Crawford Notch which afforded me an incredible view of the summit of Mt. Washington. The snow pack is DEEP throughout the notch which made me think that the ravines on the flanks of Mt. Washington are similarly filling up! We are just two days away from our newly assigned date. Tomorrow, we’ll pack our summiting gear, lay out/pack our instrumentation so that we can add to our research findings on Wednesday. Speaking of Wednesday, the ECMWF model suggest that we’ll have clear, cold weather for our trip. Temperatures at the base of the Auto Road are forecasted to be at or a little below 0˚F with a widely spaced pressure gradient and a barometric pressure of ~1035 hPa. It’ll be interesting to see how what I imagine will be a fairly calm day at the base translates into wind speeds at the summit. Game on!
Respectfully submitted, Kirk M. Niese
Comments
Post a Comment