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2023-02-07 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Mt Washington was briefly in Stratosphere last week

[SmithsonianMag] As extremely cold temperatures gripped the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada over the weekend, New Hampshire's Mount Washington endured record-breaking conditions. On Friday, the wind chill at the top of the peak reached minus 108 degrees Fahrenheit, which is likely the lowest wind chill ever recorded in the history of the nation, report CNN's Ralph Ellis and Aya Elamroussi.

....on Friday, part of the next-lowest atmospheric region, the stratosphere, dipped so low that the mountain's summit and any surrounding areas above 4,000 feet in elevation were actually in that layer instead. As the atmosphere cools down, it becomes more compressed, causing the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere to drop.

The stratosphere is typically 4 to 12 miles above the surface of the Earth, but some of it sank to less than a mile above the surface on Friday, Terry Eliasen, a meteorologist with Boston's WBZ-TV, wrote in a tweet.

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looking at the data, the above the stratosphere time was pretty brief, about an hour or two between 11pm Fri and 1 am Saturday -the wind direction changed from NW to W during this period and then changed back to NW

a stratosphere event like this probably has happened before but this time a chunk of the polar vortex passed over an area with an observation point

Posted by lord garth 2023-02-07 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ] Top

#1 The -47.1 F was a February record on the mountain and only three degrees from the all-time temp low in January 1885.

Posted by KBK 2023-02-07 01:12|| 2023-02-07 01:12|| Front Page Top

#2 At first reading I thought this meant Mt. Washington suddenly ascended from its usual location.

Posted by Gromble Dribble4342 2023-02-07 08:26|| 2023-02-07 08:26|| Front Page Top

#3 Climbing Mt. Washington is a hoot. There is official signage at the base of the main trail warning people to turn back if they are not properly equipped / dressed &/or if the weather ahead looks bad. Along the trail are cenotaphs memorializing, one by one, the deaths of would-be climbers who didn't make it back alive from their hikes. Dates on these memorials go back at least to the 1800s.

Posted by Gromble Dribble4342 2023-02-07 08:28|| 2023-02-07 08:28|| Front Page Top

#4 Gromble Dribble4342 I did that in the summer of 1991. Not as tall as

Posted by Deacon Blues 2023-02-07 09:25|| 2023-02-07 09:25|| Front Page Top

#5 Mt LeConte or Clingman's Dome in the Smokey Mountains but much more rugged and colder. Odd that this part of my previous post was cut off.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2023-02-07 09:27|| 2023-02-07 09:27|| Front Page Top

#6 Made you Double Dribble as it were.... I'll go to my room now...

Posted by Warthog 2023-02-07 09:44|| 2023-02-07 09:44|| Front Page Top

#7 ^LOL

Posted by Deacon Blues 2023-02-07 12:18|| 2023-02-07 12:18|| Front Page Top

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