Mount Washington records highest wind gust of this winter season at 150 mph
NORTH CONWAY, N.H. - The high winds that swept through New England on Monday made for a season record atop the region's highest peak. The Mount Washington Observatory said gusts reached 150 mph, the highest speed seen all winter.
The summit saw "significant blowing and drifting snow" all day, the Observatory said.
"Winds began gusting over 100mph yesterday morning, slowly building through the day before reaching a crescendo shortly before 6 p.m. ... with winds becoming sustained in the mid-120s with gusts up to 150 mph," a social media post read.
The nonprofit shared video recorded from 6,288 up, showing the wind whipping up freezing fog on the mountain as a researcher braved the elements.
March 11th, 2024 Blowing Snow and High Winds on the SummitYesterday (March 11th), Mount Washington experienced its highest gust of the winter season leading to significant blowing and drifting snow over the course of the day. Winds began gusting over 100mph yesterday morning, slowly building through the day before reaching a crescendo shortly before 6pm EST (7pm EDT) with winds becoming sustained in the mid-120s with gusts up to 150mph. A few of the highlights from yesterday were caught on video by our current Winter Intern, Tricia Hutton, including: The ‘river’ of the blowing snow passing between the tower and Tip-Top House. A view of the tower with our wind instruments, where you can see the freezing fog whipping by overhead with winds sustained at over 100mph. One of the weather observers, Karl Philippoff, retrieving the precipitation can for the mid-day synoptic observation. And, the Hays chart for the day, showing the peak wind gust at 150 mph(!), as well as the average wind speed and direction for each hour.
Posted by Mount Washington Observatory on Tuesday, March 12, 2024
The summit forecast calls for winds to decrease Tuesday night, with gusts only reaching 105 mph early in the evening.
History of record wind gusts atop Mount Washington
About two weeks ago, wind gusts at the summit reached 147 mph. Video shared by the Observatory then showed the wind pushing a person across the ice-covered ground.
"On a typical winter day up here, we get around a 100 mph-wind gust every two days up here," weather observer Charlie Peachey told WBZ-TV at the time.
In 2019, Mount Washington broke a February record with a 171 mph wind gust.
The Observatory recorded a world-record wind gust of 231 mph back on April 12, 1934. It's the strongest gust ever recorded by a staffed weather station, the Observatory says.