A new world record wind gust: 253 mph in Australia's Tropical
Cyclone Olivia The 6,288-foot peak of New Hampshire's Mount
Washington is a forbidding landscape of wind-swept barren rock,
home to some of planet Earth's fiercest winds. As a 5-year old
boy, I remember being blown over by a terrific gust of wind on
the summit, and rolling out of control towards a dangerous drop-
off before a fortuitously-placed rock saved me. Perusing the
Guinness Book of World Records as a kid, three iconic world
weather records always held a particular mystique and
fascination for me: the incredible 136°F (57.8°C) at El Azizia,
Libya in 1922, the -128.5°F (-89.2°C) at the "Pole of Cold" in
Vostok, Antarctica in 1983, and the amazing 231 mph wind gust
(103.3 m/s) recorded in 1934 on the summit of Mount Washington,
New Hampshire. Well, the legendary winds of Mount Washington
have to take second place now, next to the tropical waters of
northwest Australia. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
has announced that the new world