The temperature at Mount Washington, New Hamshire dropped -110°F below zero on Saturday and the winds guest reached over 140mph. A strong arctic gust swept into the northeastern United States on Friday and brought temperatures to record lows. A mass of freezing air would keep temperatures at life-threatening levels until Saturday, said a National Weather Service (NWS) adviser, warning of “extremely dangerous” conditions ahead of a “short-lived gust”.
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🚨#BREAKING: Extreme weather conditions taking place on Mount Washington ⁰⁰📌#MtWashington| #NH⁰⁰Currently extreme weather conditions is taking place on Mount Washington in New Hampshire with winds guest reaching over 140mph+ and wind chills dropping -110°F below zero pic.twitter.com/EnBt4t7pJo
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) February 3, 2023
Boston and Worcester were among the school districts closed on Friday due to concerns about the risk of hypothermia and frostbite while children waited for buses or went to school.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu declared a state of emergency Sunday and opened warming centers to help the city’s more than 650,000 residents cope with what the NWS warned could turn into an “only in a generation” cold front. There is a wind chill warning that will stay through Sunday.
The extreme cold that’s gripping the entire state could be setting up for an unusual weather phenomenon at the region’s highest peak.
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According to the NWS, the troposphere could fall below the summit of Mount Washington late Friday night or early Saturday morning, which would mean the observatory could be located in the stratosphere for a short time. The stratosphere is the second layer of Earth’s atmosphere.
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The observers expect wind gusts topping 100 mph Friday night and Saturday morning, with wind chills as low as -110. The actual air temperature at the peak could set a record. The official lowest temperature ever recorded at the summit is -47 in January 1934. Records from January 1885, though, include an unofficial record low of -50. Conditions on Mount Washington have won it the moniker of the “Home of the World’s Worst Weather.” According to a mountaintop Livestream, the summit was in whiteout conditions throughout Friday.