Andrew,

Please stop polarizing the Global Warming issue!

I hope that there is not a hint that "global warming" is contributing to this here. There are some folks that are claiming that "man-made climate change" is causing increased precipitation in the antarctic which is causing glaciers to grow. There are some of us who simply want to study and discuss meteorology without politics and I am among those people. Aside from that, I wonder how this string of storms will affect weather events around the world in coming weeks and months. While not in the jetstream, passing storms can tap into the strong jetstream winds and bring those winds closer to the surface, correct?

From Brian: First of all, I am not sure where you would have gotten the idea that there is even a single hint to contributing these storms to climate change. Not once do I even come close to trying to explain the origins of these storms in any way shape or form. I simply presented facts.

Secondly, I can say with an extremely high degree of confidence that these storms will have absolutely no effect on the weather events around the world in the coming weeks and months. That's just simply not how our atmosphere works.

Lastly, I think you may be a little confused about the whole jet stream thing. In one of the previous comments, the reader was mentioning that Mount Washington's is located in the jet stream and this is one of the causes of the extreme weather on the mountain. I was simply correcting that reader and making sure it is clear that Mount Washington is not even close to being located within the jetstream. At the same time, your statement about storms being able to tap into strong jetstream winds is a correct one.

My first initial thought was a major research station can't be accommodated with some high caliber equipment? However I must admit I'm ignorant about measuring wind speed.
There has to be another way than using a mechanical anemometers to measure wind. Since wind is pressure and force, is there some kind if equipment available which is able to take the pressure off the surface of of an instrument in which a fix fluid responds by changing its elevation. Something like a barometer but calibrated for wind.
If I have an invention, please include me on the patent.

From Brian: Interestingly enough, you have just done a pretty good job at describing the anemometer that we use on Mount Washington. It utilizes a pitot tube, just like you would find on a aircraft. It is not a commercially available instrument though. We custom designed the instrument and the rest of the system for our own use in the 1940's. As far as we know, no one else uses a pitot tube to measure the wind, in the field, anywhere else in the world.

I have written a couple entries about the Pitot Anemometer:

Pitot Anemometer, Part 1

Pitot Anemometer, Part 2

Hey there Brian. I dont believe that the measurement is accurate. Honestly i dont think there will ever be a wind as high as the one recorded on Mount Washington ever, well observed anyway. I think its very notable that because of where Mount Washington lies within the jetstream that your fiercest winds and bad weather occur.
I have been up to Mount Washington many times and when i go up there i am always awe struck by the mountain and its unpredictable weather. Keep the information coming as i am a big weather enthusiast. have a good one.
Kevin

From Brian: I would tend to agree with you. The biggest problem, I think, is that most places just don't have anemometers in place to measure a wind in excess of 231 mph. Back in 1934, we did here on Mount Washington and still do today. It's just overkill (and unecessarily expensive!) for most places to have anemometers to measure those kinds of winds because they don't see them often enough. I think if and when the record does get broken, it will be when someone sucessfully measures the winds inside a tornado with an anemometer.

Just to clear something up, Mount Washington is not actually inside the jetstream. At just below 6,300 feet above sea level, we aren't even close. The jetstream is typically at 30,000 to 40,000 feet in the air. We do however lie in a region that sees several major storm tracks converge. Of course, these storms tracks are often dictated by the jetstream.

Also, thanks for your kind words. It's always good to hear when someone appreciates what I do!

On can assume that the research station at McMurdo does not research wind? Do you think their thermometers are calibrated?

From Brian: I have no doubt that a major research station such as McMurdo has properly calibrated instruments within the ranges that those instruments are designed to measure.

The problem is that very few commercially available anemometers are designed or calibrated to measure winds greater than 200 mph. Now that does not mean that the device they have cannot measure a wind that high, it just means that a certain correction may have to be applied. That correction could be significant, especially if the 211 mph measured gust is significantly out of the range the device was designed to measure. This is one of the big reasons that we use a custom designed anemometer here on Mount Washington.