2022 By The Numbers

January has arrived, a time of year to not only look forward to what might occur in the coming year but also a time to look back and reflect on the previous year. Looking back at weather stats, I would summarize 2022 weather conditions on the summit as warm, wet (however, not snowy), foggy, and windy. To find out why these words were chosen, let’s look back at some of the stats from last year.

Our average temperature for 2022 was 29.3°F (-1.5°C), which is 1.3°F above the 1991-2020 30-year normal for our station. The annual average temperature of 2022 tied with 2006 for the sixth highest average in our dataset, which started in 1932. Our warmest temperature recorded in 2022 was 65°F (18.3°C), which occurred on June 26, Aug. 4, and Aug. 6. Our coldest temperature recorded in 2022 was 31°F below (-31°F/-35°C), which occurred on Jan. 11.

In terms of total liquid precipitation, from January to December of 2022, the summit of Mount Washington received 94.00 inches, which was 2.77 inches above the 1991-2020 30-year normal for our location. From January to December of 2022, the summit received 236.7 inches of snow, which was 45.1 inches below the 1991-2020 30-year normal for our location.

View of the southern summits of the Presidential Range with undercast at sunset

In terms of winds, for 2022 our average was 36.4 mph, which was 1.5 mph above the 1991-2020 30-year normal average for our location. Our highest gust recorded for 2022 was 150 mph, which occurred on Dec. 23. From January to December, we had 157 days which had gusts of 73 mph or greater and of those days, 45 days had gusts that were 100 mph or greater.

As for our weather during 2022, we averaged 39% of the possible sunshine. The summit had 16 days that were noted as clear or mostly clear, and there were 54 partly sunny days, with the remaining 295 days being filed under mostly cloudy, cloudy, or obscured (fog). We had 320 days with at least some amount of fog recorded during a 24-hour period. We had 135 days with rain and 149 days with snow.

If interested in additional weather data, please check out our F-6 page (updated nightly), our Normals, Means, and Extremes page, our Current Conditions Page, our 48-Hour Higher Summits Forecast, and our Annual Temperature Graph. If you need data for research purposes, you can submit a request HERE. If interested in supporting the work we do at our weather station, please consider donating or becoming a member.

View of the northern summits of the Presidential Range

Ryan Knapp, Weather Observer/Staff Meteorologist