Abstract
IN the Engineering News-Record of May 10, 1934, there is an article about the alleged wind speed of 231 miles an hour said to have been attained at the meteorological observatory of Harvard Univer sity on Mount Washington, New Hampshire, on April 12, 1934. Most meteorologistsâ at least European onesâ probably paid little attention to the reports of this wind that appeared in the newspapers soon after that date, on the grounds that such a wind could not have been measured even if it actually occurred, but Dr. C. F. Brooks, professor of meteoro logy at Harvard, is quoted as stating that the speed in question was recorded by an anemometer of the cup pattern, similar in principle to the well-known Robinson anemometer, and is probably correct to within about ten miles an hour. It appears that the design of the instrument was roughly copied from an experimental anemometer seen at Bergen in 1931, modifications being introduced to meet the difficult conditions sometimes experienced at Mount Washington, in very windy weather, that may result in massive ice formations due to rime. Electrical heating of the anemometer of a very powerful kind had to be introduced, and hot air was made to pass through the six cups, which were fitted closely round a copper disc placed over an electric stove, and were driven in the normal manner by the pressure of the wind. The instrument was tested in a wind tunnel at the Bureau of Standards up to a speed of 150 miles an hour, and as the calibration curve became nearly straight towards the maximum speeds it seemed justifiable to extrapolate to 231 miles an hour, with the probability of obtaining a figure not significantly different from the true figure. The speed in question was the average, while three contacts were made, each representing the passage of 1/30 mile of air past the cups and was therefore for a gust.
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High Wind Speed at Mount Washington. Nature 134, 658 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134658b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134658b0