Mount Washington, New Hampshire is well known to most meteorologists.
A mountaintop weather station famous for possessing the highest near-surface wind speeds ever recorded in the US: 231 mph.
But today, the Mount Washington Observatory broke another record: Lowest wind chill temperature ever recorded in the US
Reminder: wind chill temperature combines wind and temperature to provide a measure How much heat are you losing outside?. Lower wind chill temperatures mean your skin loses heat faster.
If there is no wind, the temperature and the Windchill temperature are the same. But as the wind speed increases, the temperature of the cold wind drops below the effective temperature, as the wind increases heat loss from your skin.
The previous US wind chill record of -100F was observed at McGrath Alaska. That record has now been superseded by -107F at Mount Washington today, a combination of -46F temperatures and 95 mph wind speeds (see below)
There is a chance that cold winds could decrease further in the next few hours.
Wind chills below -98F are not even shown on the official National Weather Service cold wind chart (below). At wind chill temperatures below -100F, frostbite occurs on open skin in 1-3 minutes.
More broadly, current temperatures in the Northeast US are staggering, with temperatures in coastal Long Island coming in at around -20F above NE New York.
Some daily records will be broken because of the cold record the next day.
Along with strong winds, cold winds across the Northeast ranged from -50F over Maine and -11F over coastal New England, to -20/-30F over upstate NY.
The Northwest has a cloudy day today, with showers and typical temperatures expected this weekend. Yawn.
