Weather Event · March 16–17, 2026

81 mph and Climbing:
Blue Hill’s Big Wind Event.

An unusually calm March ended with one of its most dramatic nights — and the instruments on Great Blue Hill were watching.

Blue Hill Observatory with Boston in the background.

Wind is always part of the story on top of Great Blue Hill — but on the night of March 16th into the early hours of March 17th, the story got considerably louder.

The biggest storm of the month arrived on the 16th–17th, bringing 1.45 inches of rain and some of the most intense wind gusts recorded at the Observatory all year. During the evening of the 16th, a peak gust of 71 mph was measured. Then, just after midnight — during the 1 a.m. hour of the 17th — the peak for the month arrived: a gust of 81 mph out of the south.

What makes this event particularly striking is its contrast with the rest of the month. Despite March normally ranking among the windiest months of the year at Blue Hill, the mean wind speed for March 2026 was just 12.4 mph — tying for the 4th lowest March mean wind speed on record. In other words, the month was unusually calm right up until it wasn’t.

The prevailing wind direction for March was out of the south-southwest, occurring 20% of the time — consistent with the powerful southerly surge that drove the storm’s most intense gusts.

Events like this are a reminder of why continuous, high-elevation observation matters. Blue Hill Observatory’s uninterrupted record, stretching back to 1885, gives us the context to understand not just what happened — but how significant it truly was.