Mount Washington is among the coldest places on the planet — and beyond

By Martha Schick Globe Correspondent January 06, 2018

Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire isn’t just cold — at -36 degrees with a windchill of 94 below, it’s tied for the second coldest place on Earth, according to a tweet from the observatory. In fact, according to the latest data available from the Curiosity rover on Mars, Mount Washington feels colder than the surface of our celestial neighbor, which was measured at -78 degrees.

As of Saturday morning, the wind was gusting at over 100 miles per hour at the summit, which is 6,288 feet above sea level, according to the observatory’s website.

“We should end up being the coldest location tonight in the Lower 48,” Mike Carmon, senior meteorologist at the Mount Washington Observatory, told the New York Times. “We basically just start saying it’s stupid cold outside.”

If you’re wondering what place on Earth could possibly be colder than Mount Washington, it’s Eureka, Nunavut, at -40 degrees. But with winds of only 2 miles per hour, Eureka comes in at a balmy windchill of -50 degrees.

Material from the New York Times was used in this report. Martha Schick can be reached at martha.schick@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @MarthaSchick.

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