Personal experience: what it's like to be in the coldest place on Earth during a record frost

Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire is known to have some of the wildest weather conditions on the planet. How meteorologists survived the harshest night on February 3 and recorded a new record, reports CNN.

Photo: IStock

The observatory is located at an altitude of just over 1828 meters - in an ideal location for strong winds and brutal cold.

Mount Washington is the highest mountain in the northeastern region of the United States with a height of 1917 meters. The mountain is known for dangerously changeable weather and for a long time held the record for the highest wind speed measured on the earth's surface - 372 km / h, measured on April 12, 1934.

When the record-breaking Arctic explosion took place in the United States on February 3, there were three people at the Mount Washington Observatory watching it all.

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“The wind was so strong that I fell at least once that night. I was grateful to be able to return to the observatory,” said Mount Washington Observatory meteorologist Alexis George. “It’s not something that’s very easy to get used to because it’s a very difficult experience. The wind was almost like a freight train."

She, along with fellow observer Francis Tarasevich and a trainee, braved the wind and cold on the summit of Mount Washington inside the observatory and was in charge of measurements and observations at the summit on February 3 in the evening. Normally the work is done once an hour, but that evening it was done much more frequently due to the extreme conditions.

“So given the fact that we were close to breaking records that night, we had to go out in those conditions every 15 to 20 minutes or so,” George said.

Wrapped up from head to toe, George had to work in the harshest conditions. She went out on mission carrying a psychrometer in her hand, which the observatory had been using to measure weather conditions since 1932.

Their perseverance paid off as they recorded a chill of minus 77 degrees. It was probably the coldest wind ever recorded in the US.

It's hard to say for sure since the National Weather Service doesn't monitor cold winds as closely as temperatures. However, most meteorologists who monitor extreme conditions believe that the minus 77C reading beat the previous record of minus 76C set in Alaska.

The previous cold wind record for Mount Washington was minus 74 degrees in 2004.

This is the kind of cold that few people have ever seen or would ever want to feel.

“Any area of ​​exposed skin, even if it's just a millimeter, the cold feels like a bee sting or a mild sunburn, so it's definitely not very pleasant here,” Tarasiewicz said. “But we are up here for these extreme conditions.”

Tarasevich and George were in the elements for about five minutes every 15–20 minutes. It's a dangerous job that requires serious courage and concentration as they slowly make their way to the observation deck to get weather data.

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“We're not tied to a rope or anything, so we always have to be careful,” George explained. “Because you can easily fall and just fly across the observation deck if you’re not careful.”

The wind was so strong at one point in the day that it blew out the door to the observatory.

“In short - horror. It took two people to keep the door closed while the wind blew over 160 mph. We ended up attaching the new latch. We also had a piece of plywood to hold the door in place. So we were hoping that this would be a good solution, at least in the short term,” Tarasiewicz said.

George had been at the observatory for less than a year and knew that the evening of February 3rd could be a record night that might never be broken.

“Being able to experience sustained wind gusts of over 160 mph was a very exciting thing for me,” George recalls. “Being able to experience minus 77 degrees is something I’ll be bragging about for years to come.”

The Mount Washington Observatory is a non-profit research and educational institution working to advance our understanding of Earth's weather and climate.

Mount Washington was not the only place where records were set from February 3rd to 4th. February 4 morning in Boston set a minimum temperature of minus 23C, beating the previous daily record of minus 18 degrees. The weather service also tweeted that it was the first double-digit sub-zero temperature recorded since 1957.

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In Worcester, Massachusetts, temperatures reached minus 25 degrees, breaking the previous daily record of minus 20 degrees. Providence, Rhode Island recorded minus 22 degrees, breaking the previous daily record of minus 18 degrees. In Hartford, Connecticut, the temperature reached minus 22,7 degrees, breaking the previous daily record of minus 22,2.

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