Columbus (WCMH) – Parts of Central Ohio dropped below zero in parts of our area this morning. Newark dropped to -5, with wind chills pushing to -13°. In fact the last two nights we have had wind chills pushing -10° to -15° in parts.
We think that is cold, but compared to our friends to the east, we have seen nothing!Mount Washington, New Hampshire, one of the windiest places on the planet had a much colder morning today:
The weather observation station on the mountain sits at more than 6,260ft above sea level, and is also quite cold this time of the year.
In fact the morning low at the station was -36° with a daytime high of -11°. But the winds were the really big issue overnight, gusting to nearly 100 mph!!!Below is the data from today (December 16th) from Mount Washington:
In the red color is the wind speed and wind gusts, the blue is the air temperatures, and the purple is the wind chill.
These insane numbers might seem like a record, but they are far from it:
In fact, the highest wind speed ever recorded up there occurred on April 10, 1934, at an incredible 231mph!!!!
(Below is data from the Mount Washington Observatory https://www.mountwashington.org/) for temperature & wind extremes recorded up on the mountain.
| Low temp | Peak Wind | |
| January | -47 (1934) | 172 (1985) |
| February | -46 (1943) | 166 (1972) |
| March | -38 (1950) | 180 (1942) |
| April | -20 (1995) | 231 (1934) |
| May | -2 (1966) | 164 (1945) |
| June | 8 (1945) | 136 (1941) |
| July | 24 (2001) | 154 (1996) |
| August | 20 (1986) | 142 (1954) |
| September | 9 (1992) | 174 (1979) |
| October | -5 (1939) | 161 (1943) |
| November | -20 (1958) | 163 (1983) |
| December | -46 (1933) | 178 (1980) |
| Extreme: | -47 (1934) | 231 (1934) |
If you have any questions about extremes, climate, or any other weather, email me: dmazza@wcmh.com
Stay warm & safe this weekend, and remember it can always be A LOT worse 😉
Also, I would like to note, I have geeked out pretty hard about how cool the weather extremes are at this place. I do plan on one day (when you are allowed to go during the warm season) taking my family up to visit the windiest place on Earth! I am sure they will love it when they get there 😉
-Dave
