Mount Washington wind chill hits minus-108

The wind chill at the summit of New Hampshire’s Mount Washington dropped to minus-108 degrees on Friday, marking what meteorologists and climate scientists say is probably the lowest recorded in the history of the United States at a time when the Northeast is getting battered with dangerously cold air.

Videos recorded by the nonprofit Mount Washington Observatory show how the extreme cold and strong winds of more than 100 mph from the arctic air blast walloped the summit on Friday afternoon — and made the mountain with the tallest peak in the Northeast look like it’s not from Earth. In fact, the eerie scene atop Mount Washington was slightly colder than the average temperature on Mars last week, according to NASA.

The wind chill at Mount Washington, a 6,228-foot peak known for its erratic weather, surpassed the record of minus-102.7 degrees set in 2004. The observatory forecast winds to blow as high as more than 100 mph on Friday night, with gusts around 128 mph.

The Mount Washington Observatory tweeted on Friday afternoon that the daily record temperature set in 1963 had already been broken and that temperatures were “expected to plunge even lower overnight.” And they did just that, dropping to minus-108, according to the National Weather Service. (The Mount Washington Observatory clocked the wind chill at minus-109 degrees.)

“The 96 mph winds (gusts to 127 mph) are producing a wind chill of -108 F,” the agency wrote Friday night.

A spokesperson with the Mount Washington Observatory did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday morning.

Francis Tarasiewicz, a meteorologist with the Mount Washington Observatory, told WMUR in Manchester, N.H., that the record-breaking wind chill capped off “an amazing day, an awe-inspiring day and actually a bit of a frightening moment.” Tarasiewicz noted how the strong wind, which he described as “a topsy-turvy whiplash,” blew the hinge off a door at the observatory.

The meteorologist, who pleaded with hikers to stay off the trails on Saturday, warned that such extreme wind chills would result in frostbite on exposed skin in less than a minute.

“On some of my observations, there have been tiny little gaps in my mittens and the spot that was uncovered to the wind felt like a bee stinging my arm continuously,” Tarasiewicz said.

The National Weather Service said the temperature at Mount Washington dropped as low as minus-46 degrees on Friday night.

“Right now Mount Washington is living up to the reputation of having the worse weather in the world,” the National Weather Service wrote.

The record-breaking wind chill at Mount Washington is part of the dangerous cold air invading the Northeast that has nearly 50 million Americans in 15 states under wind chill alerts into Saturday. Parts of Maine are going through their most extreme wind chills in at least a generation, while New England cities like Boston, Providence and Bridgeport set record daily lows in temperature, according to the National Weather Service..