Record-breaking weather: Washington D.C. and Mount Washington

While this post will not be about Antarctica, it is about the reasons I haven't written about Antarctica in many days. They both have to do with weather records. First, there is somewhere close to TWO FEET of snow sitting outside of my window in Washington, D.C. right now. After two smaller snowstorms last week, the so-called Snowmageddon storm yesterday and today brought record-breaking accumulations to the region. Since I write for Capital Weather Gang, The Washington Post's weather blog, things have been a little, well, nuts this week. In an exciting way though! Luckily, there was a lot of hype about this storm, so many people were prepared and stayed safe. Unfortunately, there were also many accidents and power outages. The city will no doubt be digging out for days. This is our second double-digit snowstorm in the past 7 weeks, which is a lot for this city.

Next, other alumni of the Mount Washington Observatory and I found out last week that the mountain's world record wind speed was replaced (how on Earth can you replace something as special and long-lived as that, you wonder? Well, in our hearts it can't be replaced. But read on to find out how it can be with science...). Fourteen years ago -- yes, as in over a decade ago -- a very strong typhoon (same as a hurricane in the Atlantic) passed over Australia, and a ground wind speed of 253 mph was recorded by an automatic weather station on Barrows Island. Meteorologists who observed this knew that it could be a record-breaker, but the paperwork went unnoticed by the World Meteorological Organization until a few years ago. Only last week did they confirm that this, indeed, beat Mount Washington's 231 mph record recorded back in 1934 and that the instrument that recorded it was valid. Although we were skeptical at first, Andrew Freedman and I said farewell to the world record wind on Capital Weather in the proper way.

So, no new Antarctica materials. However, I'll have something posted again soon. Thanks for your patience!

*Whew, what a winter.*