[Vision2020] New Hampshire's Mt. Washington Record 231 mph Wind Exceeded by 253 mph Gust, Barrow Island, Australia

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.physorg.com/news183748392.html 231-mph NH wind gust is no longer
world's fastest
January 26, 2010 By HOLLY RAMER , Associated Press Writer


In this Feb. 1, 2007 file photo, wind and driving snow are seen on the top
of the highest peak in the Northeast, Mount Washington, in New Hampshire.
Mount Washington has lost its distinction as the site of the fastest wind
gust ever recorded on Earth. The World Meteorological Organization says a
review of climate data turned up a 253 mph gust recorded in 1996 on Barrow
Island in Australia during Cyclone Olivia. That tops the 231 mph record set
atop Mount Washington in 1934. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

*(AP) -- First the Old Man, now the Big Wind. New Hampshire's Mount
Washington has lost its distinction as the site of the fastest wind gust
ever recorded on Earth, officials at the Mount Washington Observatory said
Tuesday.*

The concession came three days after the World Meteorological Organization
posted a snippet on its Web site saying a panel of experts reviewing extreme
weather <http://www.physorg.com/tags/extreme+weather/> and climate
data<http://www.physorg.com/tags/climate+data/>turned up a 253 mph
gust on Australia's Barrow Island during
Cyclone <http://www.physorg.com/tags/cyclone/> Olivia in 1996.

That tops the 231 mph record set atop Mount Washington on April 12, 1934.

"It's obviously a big disappointment. Having the world
record<http://www.physorg.com/tags/world+record/>for over six decades
was such a part of the soul of this organization and
for fans of Mount Washington around the country," said Scot Henley, the
observatory's executive director.

The official title at issue is "highest wind gust ever recorded on the
surface of the Earth by means of an anemometer." But to most people in New
Hampshire, it was simply "the Big Wind," a source of pride in a state that
also revered its Old Man of the Mountain, a rock outcropping that appeared
to be a man's profile and was featured on the state's quarter.

The Old Man crumbled to bits in 2003, seven years after the wind record
apparently toppled.

Henley stressed that Mount Washington still holds the record for the
Northern and Western hemispheres, and said it still can claim to be home to
some of the world's worst weather given the combination of bitter cold,
snow, wind and freezing fog it frequently experiences.

"So the work continues up there, and we'll be ready for the next one," he
said.

No one noticed the new record gust at the time, Henley said.

"Somehow it fell through the cracks and the Australians didn't think it was
a big deal," he said. "We hear that, and it kinds of blows our minds, but of
course, we're weather fans and we're tuned into that sort of thing."

Henley first heard about the meteorological organization's conclusion
Monday, when someone posted a link to the item on the observatory's forum.
He contacted the organization and learned that the information was part of a
report being presented at an international conference in Turkey next month.

The panel of experts has shared its research with observatory officials, who
plan to review it in the coming weeks.

"There's no reason to believe it's not accurate, but we owe it to this
institution and to our state and really to weather fans all over the world
to make sure it is indeed accurate," he said.

The Mount Washington Observatory is a private, non-profit organization that
maintains a weather station at the summit of the 6,288-foot mountain. On
April 12, 1934, there were three crew members, two guests, three cats and
five kittens at the observatory, according to observer Alex McKenzie, who
later wrote a book about the Big Wind.

According to his account, April 11 started with a brilliant sunrise, but the
weather soon turned cloudy. By evening, fog obscured the summit and rime ice
formed up to a foot thick. Early the next morning, when observer Wendell
Stephenson headed outside to clear ice from the anemometer, the wind knocked
him flat on his back as he opened the door. When he accidentally dropped the
club he was using to break up the ice, it went flying off into the fog.
Gusts were at 150 mph.

"I dropped all other activities and concentrated on observations. Everyone
in the house was 'mobilized' as during a war attack and assigned a job,"
observer Sal Pagliuca wrote in a log book.

Gusts grew stronger through the afternoon, until 1:21 p.m., when the 231 mph
gust was recorded.

"Many people have wanted to know what we did after that," McKenzie wrote.
"Did we cheer or open a bottle of champagne, or what? Well, we didn't do
anything special for a while, except make more measurements."

Mary Stampone, assistant professor of geography at the University of New
Hampshire and the New Hampshire State Climatologist, said she had long
expected the record to fall.

"As we improve our technology in terms of instrumentation, and we're
observing in more locations, we were bound to pick up on something," she
said.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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