See what happens to human beings when faced with winds blowing faster than 100 miles per hour
The place is often cited to be one with the "worst weather in the world".
To the questions of "How many roads must a man walk down?" and "How many times must cannonballs fly?", legendary American folk singer Bob Dylan famously sang, "The answer my friend is blowing in the wind." Presumably he didn't mean the wind on the observation deck of the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire, or humankind will never know the answers to those important questions.
In the video below, weather observers Mike Dorfman and Tom Padham brave the 100 mph+ winds, with the highest reaching 109 mph, as one of them finds it almost impossible to stand up straight and a slight jump means that they are blown away by the oncoming onslaught of the wind.
In a blog post accompanying the video, Dorfman wrote, "The Sherman Adams building has three-foot-thick concrete walls and three layers of bullet-resistant glass windows. Even with this protection, the constant, dull roar of the wind is ever-present in the Observatory’s Weather Room. Heading up to the tower to deice every hour is an adventure; the enclosed parapet-like tower roars like the sound of a jet engine as a plane is taking off, and exiting the top door of the parapet is like opening up the window of that ascending jet."
The Mount Washington Observatory was established on Mount Washington, which stands at 6,288 feet tall is private organisation that seeks to understand the Earth's weather and climate conditions.
Responding to claims that Mount Washington has the "worst weather in the world" Charles F Brooks wrote that "it appears that while we cannot claim that Mount Washington is at times colder than anywhere else on earth, the severity of its climate at the worst seems to be equaled or slightly exceeded only on the very highest mountains of middle or high latitudes and in Antarctica's "Home of the Blizzard".
Dorfman concludes, " Wind on the summit is an experience that you can’t just describe to understand. It makes you fully appreciate that air is in fact a fluid and not empty space. It is really impossible to safely face down hundred-mile-per-hour winds almost anywhere else; you’d either be risking your life trying to hike into them (I was exhausted after several minutes of playing in the wind) or risking your life in a hurricane, where flying debris and shrapnel poses a huge threat. Whether safely surfing the blustery wind or relaxing on the couch in our living quarters, I am very thankful for my experience here on the summit!"
Here is a compilation of breathtaking time lapse visuals from the Observatory.