treant985
02-14-2009, 11:57 AM
We all know there are some places out there with worse weather than MWO, but usually they don't have enough observations for us to make any real comparison.
However, I've been in contact with some people at the Univ. of AK in Fairbanks, who, in conjunction with a Japanese mountain-climbing team, have been operating a weather station on Mt. McKinley at 18,733 ft. It has recorded temps since the early 1990s and had some reliable wind data from the 2003-2004 season. They also have some more-recent data that I went through about a week ago but it doesn't change any of the following marks.
Anyway, given its high elevation and being so far north, their readings are amazing. Here's what I've summarized:
It now holds the national record for lowest temp recorded in 9 of the 12 months:
Apr: -55.8F (4/16/1994)
May: -45.2F (5/1/1999)
Jun: -26.7F (6/1/1995)
Jul: -22.9F (7/7/1993)
Aug: -34.8F (8/28/1998)
Sep: -39.5F (9/17/1993 & 9/26/1999)
Oct: -52.8F (10/30/1999)
Nov: -74.6F (11/29/2003)
Dec: -75.5F (12/1/2003)
They also had reliable wind readings for the 2003-2004 season, which is pretty lucky because that includes the cold stretch over late Nov and early Dec 2003 when they hit their lowest temp readings.
This results in a new North American windchill record (beating Pelly Bay's -110F). McKinley's lowest windchill values were:
-118.1F: 11/30/2003 (715AM, -74.38F, 18.42MPH)
-118.1F (slightly warmer than the one above): 11/30/2003 (615AM, -74.2F, 18.59MPH)
-117.7F: 11/30/2003 (545AM, -74.38F, 17.96MPH)
-117.4F: 11/30/2003 (745AM, -74.02F, 18.11MPH)
-116.1F: 11/30/2003 (515AM, -74.20F, 16.53MPH)
-115.5F: 11/30/2003 (645AM, -74.38F, 15.79MPH)
-115.2F: 01/08/2004 (215AM, -52.96F, 81.35MPH)
-115.2F: 03/19/2004 (245PM, -54.58F, 71.61MPH)
Between 745am on 1/7/2004 and 845am on 1/8/2004, the windchill was below -100F continuously for 25 hours. They had another stretch of 25 hours below -100F from 815am on 3/19/2004 to 915am on 3/20/2004.
Another windchill of note: -59.2F in JULY! On 7/18/2003, the temp was -18.4F with a wind of 57.77mph.
The HIGHEST reliable temperature reading that they reached over this entire stretch was +28F, on July 1, 1992.
I took out all of the clearly erroneous readings (80 degrees at 18733 ft), as well as the ones that were just gibberish code. Anyway, the average annual temp was right at -22F! Certainly beats Barrow (which is around +10F IIRC) as the next-coldest annual spot!
I compared the extreme readings with surrounding readings to make sure that I wasn't just capturing a single erroneous recording or something.
If they had wind instruments that could last longer in such conditions, we'd have even more amazing wind chill readings.
So who wants to volunteer to go man this station?
However, I've been in contact with some people at the Univ. of AK in Fairbanks, who, in conjunction with a Japanese mountain-climbing team, have been operating a weather station on Mt. McKinley at 18,733 ft. It has recorded temps since the early 1990s and had some reliable wind data from the 2003-2004 season. They also have some more-recent data that I went through about a week ago but it doesn't change any of the following marks.
Anyway, given its high elevation and being so far north, their readings are amazing. Here's what I've summarized:
It now holds the national record for lowest temp recorded in 9 of the 12 months:
Apr: -55.8F (4/16/1994)
May: -45.2F (5/1/1999)
Jun: -26.7F (6/1/1995)
Jul: -22.9F (7/7/1993)
Aug: -34.8F (8/28/1998)
Sep: -39.5F (9/17/1993 & 9/26/1999)
Oct: -52.8F (10/30/1999)
Nov: -74.6F (11/29/2003)
Dec: -75.5F (12/1/2003)
They also had reliable wind readings for the 2003-2004 season, which is pretty lucky because that includes the cold stretch over late Nov and early Dec 2003 when they hit their lowest temp readings.
This results in a new North American windchill record (beating Pelly Bay's -110F). McKinley's lowest windchill values were:
-118.1F: 11/30/2003 (715AM, -74.38F, 18.42MPH)
-118.1F (slightly warmer than the one above): 11/30/2003 (615AM, -74.2F, 18.59MPH)
-117.7F: 11/30/2003 (545AM, -74.38F, 17.96MPH)
-117.4F: 11/30/2003 (745AM, -74.02F, 18.11MPH)
-116.1F: 11/30/2003 (515AM, -74.20F, 16.53MPH)
-115.5F: 11/30/2003 (645AM, -74.38F, 15.79MPH)
-115.2F: 01/08/2004 (215AM, -52.96F, 81.35MPH)
-115.2F: 03/19/2004 (245PM, -54.58F, 71.61MPH)
Between 745am on 1/7/2004 and 845am on 1/8/2004, the windchill was below -100F continuously for 25 hours. They had another stretch of 25 hours below -100F from 815am on 3/19/2004 to 915am on 3/20/2004.
Another windchill of note: -59.2F in JULY! On 7/18/2003, the temp was -18.4F with a wind of 57.77mph.
The HIGHEST reliable temperature reading that they reached over this entire stretch was +28F, on July 1, 1992.
I took out all of the clearly erroneous readings (80 degrees at 18733 ft), as well as the ones that were just gibberish code. Anyway, the average annual temp was right at -22F! Certainly beats Barrow (which is around +10F IIRC) as the next-coldest annual spot!
I compared the extreme readings with surrounding readings to make sure that I wasn't just capturing a single erroneous recording or something.
If they had wind instruments that could last longer in such conditions, we'd have even more amazing wind chill readings.
So who wants to volunteer to go man this station?