Colder than the South Pole Mount Washington shivers in January freeze

By David Carkhuff

The South Pole was warmer than the summit of Mount Washington on Wednesday, as arctic air from Canada poured into the state.At about 5 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 17, temperatures at the summit of Mount Washington plunged to 32 below zero, Jim Salge, weather observer, reported Thursday."It's the coldest we've been this year," Salge said.The South Pole experienced a slight bump in temperatures to 27 below, creating this rare reversal."At the time that we reached 32 below, they had warmed up to minus 27," Salge said.On Wednesday evening, Salge used the Mount Washington Observatory Web site (www.mountwashington.org) to describe the dangerously cold conditions experienced that morning at the 6,288-foot summit."Winds steadily increased ... by 7 a.m., the observers had recorded a temperature of -32 degrees and a peak wind speed of 111 mph," Salge wrote. "Conditions were deemed too dangerous for the typical 8 a.m. shift change, and Brent (Brent Antkowiak, summit intern) and I found ourselves holed up in the AMC Pinkham Notch Camp enjoying a nice cup of hot chocolate until 10 a.m. By that time, the winds had calmed back down to hurricane force, and the temperatures no longer threatened the hydraulics of the Snowcat. ..."These are the coldest temperatures that weve seen on Mount Washington in a couple of winters," Salge continued. "... As an interesting aside, Tim Markle, former MWO staff meteorologist and current observer at the South Pole, wrote to say that we were colder than him this morning something especially rare, even with it being their 'summer!'"On Jan. 17, extreme wind chills reached 60 to 80 below zero, while the average daily temperature was only 5 degrees on the mountain. Still, the year-to-date low of 32 below zero failed to eclipse the record low for the day of 39 below zero set in 1982.Also, Salge acknowledged that beating the South Pole for coldest temperature was a bit of a fluke. The Antarctic temperature reading of 29 below marked a slight increase for the coldest place on Earth. (Temperatures reach a minimum of between 112 and 130 below zero in the interior in winter and reach a maximum of between 41 and 59 degrees near the coast in summer, according to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.)"That location rarely gets above zero, so that was fairly warm for them," Salge said.By 5:15 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 18, Mount Washington's temperature had climbed to 3 degrees."We're supposed to be around zero this time of year, and at frequent times below zero, so it's good to have these cold snaps come up and remind us of what winter is supposed to be like," Salge said.Last year, Jan. 16 was the coldest day in January on the summit, but the low then only hit 15 below, he noted.On Jan. 17, 2006, "it actually warmed up to 33 degrees. It was a really warm January last year."In the valley, Jan. 17, 2006 (a Tuesday) was sunny with temperatures in the 30s. Freezing rain became torrential rain by the morning of Jan. 18, 2006, giving rise to fears of flooding. The valley looked like it was basking in April weather at this time last year.Briggs Bunker, local weather observer, said Wednesday arrived with a low of 2 below zero, followed by a temperature of 1 below on Thursday.The coldest temperature in Conway for Jan. 17 was minus 9 in 1976. That year also brought the lowest Jan. 18 temperature, 20 below.More recently, the year 1994 was ushered in by the coldest January, which came in at 10.3 degrees for the average temperature.Jim Mansfield, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine, said the turnabout in weather for January 2007 is only a modest departure from normal.In Portland, Wednesday ushered in a low of 1 degree and a high of 14 degrees. This high was 8 degrees warmer than the record coldest high of 6 degrees set on Jan. 17, 1974. On Thursday, Portland temperatures crept up to a more moderate 24 degrees. Still, month-to-date temperatures on Thursday were above normal, thanks to a mild start to January."On Jan. 17, the average temperature came in at 8 degrees; the normal average temperature for the day is 21 degrees," Mansfield reported. "But Portland so far for the month, the average temperature is 11.1 degrees above normal. Those are significant numbers, but those will come down after today, as next week doesn't look much warmer."In 1971, a string of record lows occurred in mid-January: 22 below on Jan. 17; 22 below on Jan. 18; and 26 below (also the coldest day in any January) on Jan. 19. This year's cold snap hasn't touched any of those records.In Concord, the same proved true. On Wednesday, the low was zero, but it was still far short of the record low of 20 below zero set in 1971. Still, the average temperature of 7 degrees on Wednesday fell below the average temperature normally recorded for that day, 20 degrees."Certainly yesterday felt like a record breaker because of the change in weather, but it wasn't a record breaker," Mansfield said.Last year, though, mid-January was downright balmy. The weather service confirmed that January 2006 in Concord brought an average temperature of 28.8 degrees, 8.7 degrees above normal, tied for the eighth warmest January on record. The normal average temperature in January is 20.1 degrees. This January, the jet stream, a current of air that affects weather patterns, dropped into New England."We're getting a more direct flow from the northwest, systems are being driven by the jet stream, which has come right down over the top of us," Mansfield reported.The National Weather Service forecast for Friday is a chance of snow in the morning, with 2 to 4 inches possible. Saturday may bring more snow showers, with a high near 27.Assistant editor David Carkhuff can be contacted at david@conwaydailysun.com.