Mount Washington blasted by 120-mph winds, extreme cold

AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures plunged to 73 below zero atop New Hampshire’s tallest mountain Thursday night as a storm roared through the Northeast.

Mount Washington is famous for having some of the harshest weather on Earth, and on Thursday night, the New Hampshire peak once again lived up to its reputation.

Temperatures on the summit plunged to 20 degrees below zero, but the cold was only part of the story. Hurricane-force winds roared across the mountain, creating conditions few people ever experience firsthand.

"Factoring in wind gusts that frequently exceeded 80 miles per hour, the RealFeel® Temperatures bottomed out at 73 degrees below zero Fahrenheit," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.

Wind speeds were even more extreme at times. The highest gust of the night reached 120 mph, strong enough to rival a Category 3 hurricane.

The brutal conditions were tied to a storm sweeping across the northeastern United States.

"Mount Washington sits higher than any other peak across New England, so there is nothing that can slow down the powerful winds in the middle and upper levels of the atmosphere," Buckingham explained. "When storms pass overhead, they frequently feature very strong winds."

An observatory sits atop the 6,288-foot summit, where weather observers document the mountain’s famously hostile environment year-round. Their instruments have recorded some of the most dramatic weather ever measured in the U.S.

On April 12, 1934, the summit recorded a world-record wind speed of 231 mph, a benchmark that still stands today as the strongest wind ever observed at a staffed weather station.

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