Kathmandu, June 13

The National Geographic Society today announced the successful installation of the world’s highest operating weather stations on Mt Everest to provide researchers, climbers, and the public with near real-time information about mountain conditions.

“The multidisciplinary team installed the world’s two highest operating automated weather stations at the Balcony area (8,430 m) and South Col (7,945 m), as well as three other weather stations on Mt Everest,” the NatGeo Society, said in a statement.

The other stations were placed at Phortse (3,810 m), Everest Base Camp (5,315 m) and Camp II (6,464 m), it said, adding each weather station would record data on temperature, barometric pressure and wind direction, among others.

The successful installation of the world’s highest operating weather stations aims to break new ground in monitoring and understanding climate change as the stations will continuously help monitor the upper reaches of the atmosphere, which is critical to tracking and predicting weather patterns around the globe.

From April to June, an international team of scientists, climbers and storytellers, led by the NatGeo Society conducted a scientific expedition to Mt Everest.