Mount Washington is not especially tall by world standards. Yet for 62 years it held the record for the fastest wind ever measured on Earth, and its summit can be colder, windier, and foggier than places far to the north.
Right now on the summit
The latest readings from the Mount Washington summit weather station, via the National Weather Service.
- Conditions
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- Temperature
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- Wind
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- Gusts
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- Wind chill
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- Visibility
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Summit vs. valley
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Latest reports from National Weather Service stations on the summit and at the Berlin and Whitefield airports, about 5,000 feet lower.
Daylight on the summit today
. Plan to be off the exposed ridges well before dark.
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Calculated for the summit of Mount Washington, Eastern time. "First light" and "last light" are civil twilight, when there's enough light to hike without a headlamp.
Forecast for the summit area
The National Weather Service forecast for the high terrain around Mount Washington, averaged at about 5,650 ft. For hiking plans, also read the Observatory's Higher Summits Forecast.
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The last 24 hours
Summit readings from the National Weather Service station on Mount Washington. Hover over or tap a chart to see each report. Gaps mean no reading was reported.
Show the readings as a table
| Time (Eastern) | Temperature | Wind | Gusts |
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From space
The latest true-color image of the Northeast from NOAA's GOES-East weather satellite, updated every few minutes. The Presidential Range is in northern New Hampshire, just west of the Maine border. Reload the page for the newest image.
More from the summit: The Mount Washington Observatory's own pages have fuller, official readings.
- Current summit conditions: temperature, wind, and visibility, updated throughout the day
- Higher Summits Forecast: the daily forecast for hikers above treeline
- Summit cameras: the observation deck camera and the tower camera, or all of the Observatory's webcams
Why is it so extreme?
The Mount Washington Observatory points to three main reasons:
- Height and exposure. At 6,288 feet, the summit is the highest point in the Northeast. Air moving across it hasn't been slowed by friction with the ground, so the wind up top is much stronger than in the valleys.
- The shape of the range. As air is forced up and over the Presidentials, it speeds up, much like water squeezed through a hose when you put your thumb over the end. Meteorologists call this the Venturi effect.
- Storm tracks. The summit sits where three major storm tracks come together, so it takes the brunt of storms from several directions.
The result is a mountain where the weather can turn from pleasant to dangerous within hours, in any month of the year.
The Big Wind
On the afternoon of April 12, 1934, observers on the summit measured a gust of 231 mph. It was the fastest wind ever recorded anywhere on Earth until 1996, when an automated station on Barrow Island, Australia, measured a faster gust during Tropical Cyclone Olivia. Mount Washington's 231 mph gust remains the fastest wind ever recorded by people at a staffed weather station.
The wind's force grows much faster than its speed: double the wind speed, and the force on anything in its path roughly quadruples. Today the Observatory measures wind with a heated pitot-tube anemometer, because the classic spinning cups would quickly freeze solid.
Cold and ice
The lowest temperature ever recorded on the summit is −50°F, on January 22, 1885, decades before the Observatory existed. The Observatory's own record is −47°F, set on January 29, 1934.
That record was tied in February 2023, during one of the most severe cold outbreaks the summit has seen. On February 4, observers measured −46.7°F. The night before, the wind chill reached −109°F. Winds stayed above 82 mph for 28 straight hours, with a top gust of 127 mph.
When supercooled fog blows across the summit, it freezes on contact, building feathers of rime ice that grow into the wind. In extreme icing, observers have to go outside and knock ice off the instruments as often as every 20 minutes.
Snow, fog, and the average year
The snowiest winter on record was 1968–69, when 566.4 inches fell, including 49.3 inches in a single day. The summit averages more than 91 inches of total precipitation a year, and its average annual temperature is about 28°F, below freezing.
Clear days are the exception. The summit spends much of the year in cloud, which is why a sunny photo from the top is something of a prize.
The Mount Washington Observatory
The Observatory was founded on the summit in 1932, and it was its observers who recorded the Big Wind two years later. Today it is a private, nonprofit organization. Its staff live on the summit in shifts year-round, taking weather observations around the clock. It also runs educational programs and publishes a daily Higher Summits Forecast for hikers.
The weather has a human cost. More than 160 people have died in the Presidential Range since record-keeping began in 1849, many of them from hypothermia, falls, or being caught out by a sudden change in conditions.
Heading up? Check the Higher Summits Forecast and current summit conditions from the Mount Washington Observatory before any hike above treeline. Conditions at the summit are often very different from those at the trailhead.