Mt. Washington or Ben Nevis (record, temperature, precipitation, storms)

[ilovemycomputer90]

Ben Nevis

[Flight Simmer]

Originally Posted by dunno what to put here

Spoiled sports!

I'll give you 5 days at both peaks. If you're not runny to mummy crying after the first half hour, I'll give you 10 bucks.

[ChesterNZ]

Originally Posted by nei

Mount Washington Observatory (MWOBS) – Weather Normals, Means, and Extremes

LOL, I love their slogan: "home of the world's worst weather."

Have to go with Ben Nevis. Those mean wind speeds are awful!

[RWood]

MW is nasty for sure, but it can't match the windchills of some Antarctic spots. Dumont D'Urville has recorded winds up to about 320kph in combination with winter temperatures - pretty vicious.

[Proterra]

Ben Nevis obviously. Would actually not mind building a house next to Lochan meall an-t suidhe, halfway up the pony track...

Wrote an article about winter weather in the highlands for Summitpost once, which can be found here: SummitPost : Hiking, Climbing and Mountaineering

This picture was made on the 3rd of May, 2007:

[nei]

Originally Posted by RWood

MW is nasty for sure, but it can't match the windchills of some Antarctic spots. Dumont D'Urville has recorded winds up to about 320kph in combination with winter temperatures - pretty vicious.

Do you the stats for it?

Coldest windchill recently recorded on Mt. Washington was:

Jan 16, 2004 (156am reading)
-43.6 F temperature
87.5 MPH sustained winds

Wind chill: -102.6 F

Obviously Antarctiva has recorded worse, as it can get to -100°F without wind. Mount Washington's website has a bit of a discussion on their weather forum:

Wind Chill/METAR data [Archive] - Mount Washington Observatory Forums

[vaughanwilliams]

Love to visit both, but I'll go with Ben Nevis.

[RWood]

Originally Posted by nei

Do you the stats for it?

Coldest windchill recently recorded on Mt. Washington was:

Jan 16, 2004 (156am reading)
-43.6 F temperature
87.5 MPH sustained winds

Wind chill: -102.6 F

Obviously Antarctiva has recorded worse, as it can get to -100°F without wind. Mount Washington's website has a bit of a discussion on their weather forum:

Wind Chill/METAR data [Archive] - Mount Washington Observatory Forums

The Vostok numbers quoted in that link, if correct, make Mt Washington sound tropical by comparison. Don't know what the temps were when D.D had its peak wind speed record.

[skihikeclimb]

Originally Posted by ChesterNZ

LOL, I love their slogan: "home of the world's worst weather."

Have to go with Ben Nevis. Those mean wind speeds are awful!

Seriously what a joke. Sure Mt. Washington has bad weather. But it is one little tiny peak surrounded by mostly benign lesser peaks.

I would take my chances any day on a peak like Mt. Washington compared to any peak in Alaska, Himalayas, Canadian Rockies, Andes, etc. etc.

[nei]

Originally Posted by skihikeclimb

Seriously what a joke. Sure Mt. Washington has bad weather. But it is one little tiny peak surrounded by mostly benign lesser peaks.

I would take my chances any day on a peak like Mt. Washington compared to any peak in Alaska, Himalayas, Canadian Rockies, Andes, etc. etc.

-100°F windchill isn't anything to sneeze at. Also, the higher altitudes of the other mountain ranges you mentioned have lower air density, so the wind has less cooling power.

Though I agree, that on an average day, the other mountain ranges you mentioned (especially the Alaska and Himalaya Ranges) would have worse weather than Mt. Washington.