Gadgetory

this is New Hampshire's Mount Washington and a pleasant summer day don't be fooled at 6,000 288 feet it's the highest mountain in the northeastern US and home to some of the world's most extreme weather that's Tom padam one of the weather watchers at the Mount Washington observatory wins on that brutal November today we're gusting up to 105 miles per hour with a wind show of minus 40 Fahrenheit think that's crazy the summit of Mount Washington in April 1934 recorded a gust of 231 miles per hour setting a world record that's been topped only once since then so why is the weather here so extreme for one thing we're veiling winds at 6,000 feet haven't had any obstacles slowed them down for a thousand miles or more and when those winds reach New Hampshire they hit a wall of mountains and that wall forms a funnel with a focal point right at Mount Washington on top of that three major storm tracks converge there all of which makes for some seriously dangerous weather all year round here are some more extremes mountain averages 97 inches of rain and 281 inches of snow every year hurricane-force winds are a regular presence during the extended winter season monitor mile-per-hour winds whipped through basically once a week I wanted to see what it's like to actually work there the privately funded Mount Washington observatory has two crews each with three weather observers and one two three interns each crew rotates in every Wednesday for a week-long stay at the summit there are weather instruments to monitor recording things like temperature wind speed and barometric pressure people have been doing that at the observatory since 1932 and that's produced of a remarkable historical record of weather patterns and climate behavior the Observatory website updates throughout the day and there's a twice daily higher summits forecast that's vital information for hikers and skiers and tourists in the immediate vicinity and it helps a lot with regional forecast as well so we're going out a minimum of at least once an hour to take weather observation readings so we're taking temperature making sure our instruments are free as well as looking at sky condition visibility and any type of precip that might be falling from the sky kind of putting that all together for a meet our that we submit once an hour around the clock even in extreme weather the meteorologists go outside to make observations that twirly contraption it's a sling psychrometer which they used to gauge dewpoint and relative humidity when they're snow or rain someone's got to go out to fetch the precipitation bucket and it gets worse it's really frightening winter weather they constantly have to deep ice the instruments and that can be hazardous the highest winds I've ever experienced while working here is 158 miles per hour the winds were from the Northwest that night and I was outside de-icing the instrumentation and when I came back in the building was actually shaking and which is kind of an impressive feat given that it's a solid concrete building with about two to three feet walls we're seeing heavy freezing rain with winds gusting to 110 miles an hour it was building up six inches per hour of clear solid glazed ice I was knocking off basically four foot by two and a half foot or so thick blocks of ice that way to good 150 pounds in a hundred mile an hour winds so that was pretty scary actually as scary as all that may sound it's just the daily routine for the crew they even have fun with it like doing science experiments with eggs and boiling water you should be sure to check out their YouTube channel in better weather there were actually a lot of tourists who come to visit about 350,000 a year they can hike up drive a car ride the old fashioned cog railway however they get there there's usually aligned for photos at the summit marker I couldn't resist if you visit just don't push your luck especially in winter you