Live view from the summit of Mt. Washington
courtesy of
www.mountwashington.org

      Ahh yes, White Mountain weather! If you're going to be heading up to the mountains in any season of the year you had best be prepared for whatever comes your way for weather. The mountains are large enough that they do tend to create their own weather patterns. You can be coming from as little as 50 miles away and get there to encounter weather totally different from what you were experiencing before you left home.

      As you may already know Mount Washington has the reputation of having "the worst weather on earth." Many of the surrounding peaks may be slightly lower in elevation but they still can experience severe weather in any month of the year. So if you are going above treeline I would suggest you study up and be prepared for low temps, high winds and even snow, no matter what time of year it is. You may also want to check out our "Windy?" page to get a better understanding of the powers of the wind before you go.

      To give you an idea of what to expect here are a few statistics from the summit of Mount Washington.

• Highest wind (world record, 4/12/34): 231 MPH
• Average wind velocity for the year: 35.3 MPH
• Lowest temperature Jan 1934: -47°F
• Highest temperature Aug 1975: 72°F That's right the all time high is 72!
• Average annual snowfall: 256 inches
• Max snowfall in a season (1968-69): 566.4 inches
• Winds exceed hurricane force (75 MPH) on average 104 days a year
• The summit is in the clouds about 60% of the time

      I think that makes it pretty evident that whether or not it's the worlds worst weather it certainly is not your average lowland weather either! If you really want to learn more about Mount Washingtons weather in particular then you should check out the Mount Washington Observatory. It's well worth the visit. As a matter of fact if I'm climbing any of the higher peaks I always go to there first. If you'd like to see a live picture from the summit to see what it looks like right this minute then check out the Mount Washington Summit Cam.

      For now, what I'm going to do is to give you a list of links to some of the sites that I use to check out the mountain weather.

Weather Forecasts for White Mountains and Vicinity

Here's the Current temp on Mt. Washington
Click if you want the full forecast.

Links to More Forecasts for White Mountains and Vicinity

• Mount Washington Observatory: I know I already gave you a link to the Ob's site but this link is to the specific weather related page.
• Mount Washington Obs; Backcountry Weather and Trail Conditions: This is still part of the Mount Washington Observatory's site but it covers trail condtions for winter hiking. A very handy site to get the overall feel of what the weather is and what the trails will be like.
• Northeast Regional Climate Center: This is a great site that lets you select the area of the map of New England that you are heading for and get a forecast
• Accuweather for North Conway, NH: This is pretty much the heart of the White Mountains so it's a good general indicator of what to expect.
• National Weather Service for North Conway: The same place as above but often a slightly different forecast.
• Intellicast for North Conway: Yep, one more forecast for the heart of the Whites.