January 31, 2010 Mt. Washington

I just looked at mountwashington.org the Observatory's website and the webcams and this is what the summit and the east side of Mt. Washington looked like from the Wildcat Mt. webcam at 1 p.m. today. It looks a little turbulent over there but also fairly typical for January. The obs was reporting temperatures just a little below zero (-4.9 F) and winds close to 60 mph and a windchill of -38 F. Most of you have probably heard the news that Mt. Washington is no longer home to the "highest wind ever recorded (231 mph in April 1934)". The record has gone to a weather station on an island off the Australia mainland where a wind of 253 mph was recorded a few years ago that has finally been added to the record books.

This just in! The Observatory posted this on 1/27/10: "Three days ago the World Meteorological Organization posted a snippet on it's website saying a panel of experts reviewing extreme weather and climate data turned up a 253 mph gust on Australia's Barrow Island during Cyclone Olivia in 1996." The item continued with these comments from Scot Henley, executive director of the Obs, who wrote, "it's obviously a big disappointment. Having the world record for over six decades was such part of the soul of this organization and for fans of Mt. Washington around the country." (Thanks Joe, Stefi, et. al.)