Out of This World

Video by Justin Campfield

CRREL researchers test equipment at home of “World’s Worst Weather”

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center

March 17, 2025 | 1:36

Research scientists at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory are tasked with meeting the operational challenges presented by some of the Earth’s most extreme cold weather conditions. Luckily for them, their laboratory in Hanover, New Hampshire, is only a two-hour drive away from Mount Washington, home of the “World’s Worst Weather.”

Members of CRREL’s mobility team and executive leadership recently spent the day at the Mount Washington Observatory on the mountain’s summit. While there, they learned about the observatory’s facilities and capabilities and explored opportunities for collaboration between their meteorological and operational staff and CRREL’s researchers and engineers.

“It was a really amazing day,” said Dr. Ivan Beckman, director of CRREL, a U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center laboratory. “We had really high winds, and it was a pretty cold day, but those are the kind of conditions we look for because if we can learn how to move here, and in these conditions, we can move anywhere.”

As part of the visit, CRREL’s research team also used the 4,618-foot climb in alpine elevation to test multiple vehicles in preparation for an upcoming technology testing exercise in the Arctic Circle.

“One of the things that was really exciting about the trip today is that we were actually able to bring instrumented vehicles with us which we will actually be deploying to the Arctic in just two weeks,” said Dr. Orian Welling, chief of CRREL’s Research and Engineering Division. “So, it’s an ideal situation where we are about to send these pieces of equipment out into an extreme environment, and we got a chance to shake them down and make sure all of our sensors worked, and the vehicles worked as expected. We hate to get there and then find out our stuff doesn’t work, so this is really a great opportunity to try that stuff out right before a big field campaign.”

Mount Washington’s reputation for extreme weather is well earned. From 1934 to 1996, it held the world windspeed record of 231 miles per hour, a mark that was only topped by a tropical cyclone. It still holds the record for highest measured wind speed not associated with a tornado or tropical cyclone, and the mountain experiences hurricane-force winds more than 100 days per year, on average.

And just two years ago, 100-plus mph winds combined with a low temperature of -47 degrees Fahrenheit to set the U.S. record for low windchill temperature of -108 degrees, Fahrenheit.