Mount Washington’s summit has long been shorthand for atmospheric punishment, but the latest season of live coverage has given viewers a front-row seat to just how hostile the peak can be. When a Mount Washington Observatory meteorologist sat down with FOX Weather, the conversation pulled back the curtain on a winter that is not just cold and windy, but historically brutal even by local standards. The result is a rare, unsparing look at what it really means to live and work in a place that proudly calls itself home to the world’s worst weather.
Instead of abstract charts or distant records, the segment translated those extremes into human terms, from the sting of hurricane-force gusts to the grinding routine of life inside an ice-glazed research station. I came away struck by how the mountain’s ferocity is both a scientific gold mine and a daily test of endurance for the people who measure it.
The FOX Weather window into a hostile summit
In the FOX Weather appearance, Mount Washington Observatory Meteorologist Alexandra Branton did not sugarcoat what the summit has been like as winter settled in. She described a “DECEMBER TO REMEMBER” on Mount Washington, a stretch that has ranked among the coldest and windiest starts to the season in decades, with conditions that would shut down most other mountaintop facilities. Her on-air account made clear that this is not a one-off cold snap but a sustained pummeling that has defined the early season and turned routine observations into high-stakes fieldwork.
Branton’s role as a Mount Washington Observatory Meteorologist Alexandra Branton, speaking directly to a national audience on FOX Weather, gave viewers a rare sense of continuity between the summit’s daily logs and the scenes unfolding outside the camera frame. In a related clip, she joined a segment that highlighted how DECEMBER and REMEMBER have become shorthand among staff for a month of relentless storms and dangerous wind chills, reinforcing the idea that this winter is exceptional even by the mountain’s own punishing standards. That conversation, captured in a separate video, underscored how the observatory’s work is as much about survival as it is about science.
Why Mount Washington breeds the “World’s Worst Weather”
To understand why Branton’s description resonates, it helps to look at the geography that makes Mount Washington so extreme. The peak sits at the collision point of several major storm tracks, with no higher terrain nearby to blunt incoming systems, which leaves the summit fully exposed to raw Atlantic moisture and Arctic air. That combination, funneled over a relatively modest elevation by global standards, is why Mount Washington is known for having the World and Worst Weather, a reputation that is not marketing hype but a reflection of how often the summit is battered by severe conditions.
Even a relatively calm day on Mount Washington can be punishing by lowland standards. Observatory staff note that a “calm” 40 m summer day, with winds around that mark, is enough to give visitors a taste of the mountain’s power, especially when fog and freezing drizzle are added to the mix. The organization’s own overview of Mount Washington explains how that constant exposure and its storm tracks create a laboratory where extreme gusts, sudden whiteouts, and rapid temperature swings are routine rather than rare. It is this baseline volatility that sets the stage for the kind of winter Branton has been documenting.
A winter of records: snow, wind, and dangerous cold
The current season’s brutality is not just a matter of perception, it is etched into the numbers coming out of the summit. Earlier in the cold season, staff logged more than 45 inches of snow on Mount Washington in November alone, a figure that was highlighted in a press update noting “11.17.25, WMUR, More than 45 inches of snow recorded on Mount Washington this November.” That same summary pointed to “11.15.25, WMUR, More than 3 feet of snow h…” as part of a rapid-fire sequence of storms that buried the upper mountain and turned routine access into a logistical puzzle. Those figures, preserved in the observatory’s press log, show how quickly the summit can shift from bare rock to deep winter.
Wind has been just as punishing. In a separate segment, weather observer and research and IT specialist Charlie peachey described how the Mount Washington Observatory recorded 120 mph winds in March, a reminder that hurricane-force gusts are part of the job description on the summit. Charlie’s account, shared in a video, underscored how those speeds turn simple tasks like opening a door into a calculated risk. When that kind of wind is layered on top of the deep snow totals logged in November and the bitter temperatures Branton has been describing, the phrase “brutal winter” starts to feel like an understatement.
Living and working in the cold: what meteorologists endure
For the people stationed on the summit, those statistics translate into a daily routine that would be unrecognizable to most office workers. Branton’s FOX Weather appearance hinted at the grind of maintaining instruments, clearing rime ice, and simply moving between buildings when the wind is strong enough to knock a person off their feet. The segment that introduced her as Mount Washington Observatory Meteorologist Alexandra Branton on FOX Weather made clear that forecasting here is inseparable from fieldwork, with staff stepping into the elements to verify what their instruments are telling them.
The physical risk is not theoretical. As Globe meteorologist Ken Mahan explained when officials on the summit braced for extreme cold, “Generally speaking, Mount Washington and” the surrounding high terrain can see temperatures and wind chills that rival polar research stations when Arctic air masses settle in. That warning, captured in a report on extreme cold, underscored why the observatory’s staff treat every trip outside as a calculated exposure, layering up in specialized gear and moving in pairs when conditions deteriorate. In that context, Branton’s calm delivery on television reads less like a dramatic flourish and more like the practiced composure of someone who has learned to work inside a hazard zone.
Why the “worst weather” matters far beyond New Hampshire
For all the hardship, the summit’s extremes serve a purpose that stretches well beyond the White Mountains. New Hampshire’s Mount Washington Observatory is both a tourist attraction and a research facility, a dual identity that helps fund and justify the round-the-clock staffing needed to capture high-elevation data. Touted as “home of the world’s worst weather,” the observatory draws researchers who want to understand how storms behave in complex terrain and how climate trends might be reshaping those patterns. That role was highlighted in a feature on why scientists are drawn to Mount Washington Observatory, which framed the summit as a natural laboratory perched above the rest of New England.
The observatory’s work is also unusually transparent. Anyone with an internet connection can browse summit webcams, daily logs, and educational material through the main Mount Washington site, or dive deeper into the history of its legendary winds through features that point readers back to mountwashington.org. Even technical partners have seized on the summit’s reputation, with one communications company noting that “If FreeWave can deliver in the ‘World’s Worst Weather,’ we can deliver anywhere” in a case study that directs readers to Addional information about the observatory’s monitoring systems. That blend of public access and cutting-edge instrumentation is what turns Branton’s televised updates into more than a spectacle, they are the human face of a high-altitude lab whose findings ripple through forecasting models, engineering tests, and climate research.
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