Cirrus fibratus grades to a street of cirrostratus, with a fading old contrail mixed in for good measure. This all wafted over an iconic and legendary meteorological spot: the Mount Washington Observatory. An unusually calm, splendid day belies the thoroughly wretched and dangerous conditions that often blast this place in the cool season. With no barrier to low-level jets blowing from any direction, an unimpeded exposure from an altitude of over 6,000 feet snatches snow and/or rime ice from most every winter cloud. On April 12, 1934, an anemometer here clocked a 231-mph gust, a world-record, nontornadic surface-wind record that stood for over 60 years. I was on the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) committee that evaluated and certified its successor, a 254-mph gust from a likely eyewall mesovortex of Cyclone Olivia in Australia. Fret not, Mt. Washington fans: despite getting bumped off the world wind throne, it still boasts of the strongest Western and Northern Hemisphere surface gust…again, outside tornadoes.
7 E Bretton Woods NH (30 Sep 22) Looking W
44.2701, -71.3037