Balmy Day on Washington

[dr_wu002]

It's cool here in Easthampton... cold and windy. But on Washington, it's a different story. 2:15 weather conditions:

Temp
-30.3°F

Wind:
302° (NW), 96.1 mph

Gust:
100.1 mph

Windchill:
-84.2°F

http://www.mountwashington.org/

If I had the day off I'm not sure that I'd go fer a hike up there. I'm certainly not equipped for that kind of weather.

Friday looks nice though.

-Dr. Wu

 

[Jason Berard]

as the wind was whipping through my yard this morning, and the temp was -3, I was wondering what it was like up there.

 

[MattC]

This morning on the Weather Channell, they showed a clip of one of the Observatory staff throwing water from a pan. It turned to snow as soon as it hit the air. And it was hot water!

Matt

 

[KMartman]

This morning on the Weather Channell, they showed a clip of one of the Observatory staff throwing water from a pan. It turned to snow as soon as it hit the air. And it was hot water!

Matt

Saw that too....was super cool...but if I remember correctly I think hot water freezes faster.....but im no scientist.

M

 

[sardog1]

Here's the Mount Washington Observatory's video of boiling water tossed into the air on March 6.

(Gonna stay away from the "which freezes faster" question -- it ranks up there with postholing dogs for generating controversy . . . )

 

[Whiteman]

Actually

The Hot Water Freezes Faster thing is not that complicated. Hot water in freezer has greater tendency to evaporate SO with less water in the ice cube tray, of course it freezes faster. It comes down to the water does not freeze faster, there is just less of it to freeze. Ya?

 

[bikehikeskifish]

The Mpemba Effect

The Hot Water Freezes Faster thing is not that complicated. Hot water in freezer has greater tendency to evaporate SO with less water in the ice cube tray, of course it freezes faster. It comes down to the water does not freeze faster, there is just less of it to freeze. Ya?

It's not quite that cut-and-dry. There are many factors at work here, one of which is evaporation resulting in less mass. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpemba_effect for a brief explanation, and links to many physics papers dealing with this topic.

Tim