'Wet slide' avalanche concludes wild week on Mount Washington

Looking toward Mount Jefferson and Mount Adams from Mount Washington, the top image was taken Wednesday, the bottom image on Saturday. (COURTESY OF MOUNT WASHINGTON OBSERVATORY)


After record cold followed by rain and record warmth, the tallest mountain in the Northeast wrapped up a wild week of weather Saturday with a “wet slide” avalanche in Tuckerman Ravine and the near disappearance of all snow from the summit.

Conditions were returning to “normalcy” on Sunday, when temperatures were right around zero and there was a forecast for snow on Tuesday, said Tom Padham, a meteorologist and observer at the Mount Washington Observatory.

On Jan. 6, the observatory tied a record low set on Jan. 5, 1959, when the thermometer atop the Rock Pile registered an air temperature of 38 below zero.

Combined with a wind measured at 106 mph, the resulting windchill was minus 97, ten degrees off the record of February 2004 when the air temperature was minus 44.

Read more: http://www.unionleader.com/weather/wet-slide-avalanche-concludes-wild-week-on-mount-washington--20180114