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Mount Washington gust

WMO northern-hemisphere maximum gust of 103.3 m/s (231 mph) on 12 April 1934. The world maximum remains Barrow Island at 113.2 m/s.

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Wind speed

Published as 103.3 m/sPublished as 103.3 m/sPublished as 103.3 m/s

WMO northern- and western-hemisphere maximum wind gust, Mount Washington, New Hampshire, 12 April 1934. Not the world maximum.

OfficialWorld Meteorological Organization (opens source in a new tab)

In context

  • 3.6× a cheetah's timed top speedSourced · Cheetah, 29 m/s. Sharp 1997, mean of three timed runs over 201.2 m
  • 1.1 football fields a secondConstant · American football field, 100 yd (91.44 m)
  • London to New York in 14 h 59 minConstant · London to New York, 5,570 km great-circle

Worked out from the sourced figure above, which stays the ranked number.

Mechanism

Why it's so fast

Mount Washington gust is air moving from higher pressure toward lower pressure. The list says whether the figure is a gust or another extreme, and it does not mix those definitions.

  1. A pressure difference

    The tighter and deeper the low, the faster the air moves to fill it. Terrain and the storm's structure decide what an anemometer on the ground actually records.

  2. The definition on the list

    Mount Washington gust's entry names the interval. A three-second gust and a one-minute wind are not the same claim.

Nearby on this list: Cyclone Olivia at Barrow Island.

Provenance

Every measurement

Claimed, measured and official figures side by side, each with its source. The ranked figure is marked.

  1. 372km/h231mph103.3m/s201knRanked figure

    WMO northern- and western-hemisphere maximum wind gust, Mount Washington, New Hampshire, 12 April 1934. Not the world maximum.

    Official
    World Meteorological Organization (opens source in a new tab)

Reference

Specs

Quantity
3-second gust class in the WMO table
Speed
103.3 m/s
Site
Mount Washington, New Hampshire
Date
12 April 1934

Context

Background

The WMO table of 25 July 2025 prints 103.3 m/s (231 mph) on 12 April 1934 at Mount Washington as the northern-hemisphere and western-hemisphere maximum gust. The July 2024 table prints the same cell. The 2012 Olivia evaluation paper names 103.3 m/s at Mount Washington in April 1934 as the mark Barrow Island superseded.

The world maximum on the same tables is still 113.2 m/s at Barrow Island. Both are 3-second gust records in the archive, so both are on this list. The hemispheric label is the scope, not a reason to drop the older mark.

Spot a wrong number?

Every report is read by a person, and corrections are dated on the page.