The Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center
Bluemont, VA

Where is Mount Weather?

Mount Weather is about 48 airline miles west of Washington, DC; about 54 miles by road.

The facility's address is 19844 Blue Ridge Mountain Rd. (VA Rt. 601). The road runs northeast-southwest along the mountain, roughly on the line between western Loudoun County and eastern Clarke County. Rt. 601 terminates at two major highways: Rt. 7 to the north and Rt. 50/17 to the south. Directional signs indicating "Mount Weather EAC" are located at both intersections [as of August 2003, these signs may have been removed]. The FEMA facility is approximately halfway along the road.

Note: Mount Weather is a secure installation and does not admit unauthorized visitors. There are few places where one can park along Rt. 601, and walking along the road is unsafe due to the lack of a shoulder in most places.

FEMA's MWEOC Fact Sheet provides a good overview of Mount Weather's unclassified activities.

The FEMA document, however, says nothing about the large underground complex which is the facility's most famous feature, nor does it mention the installation's "black" continuity-of-government mission.

Mount Weather's Mission

From its inception as "High Point" in the 1950s, Mount Weather has been the emergency-operations headquarters for the federal civilian agencies and officials of the Executive Branch. That mission, originally part of the federal Continuity of Government program, continues to this day. Its details are highly classified. Mount Weather is operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), successor to the Office of Emergency Preparedness.

Information released by FEMA focuses on Mount Weather's role in disaster preparedness and mitigation. That mission includes telephone registration of disaster victims seeking assistance, and on-site training of state and local emergency-management officials. Students in these courses are housed on the west side of the property in buildings which appear from the outside like military barracks, but which contain individual rooms furnished like those in a modest motel. An unusual feature is a notice posted in each room, explaining the site's extensive security regulations

For more information about Mount Weather's history and activities, readers will find GlobalSecurity.org's web page an excellent resource.

Mount Weather's Names

Many names have been associated with the Mount Weather facility over the years. Here's a list:

Site Plans

Telecommunications Links

The ability to communicate with other elements of the federal government has always been an essential requirement of Mount Weather's mission. Multiple telecommunications links, using diverse media, provide redundancy and flexibility. This section is incomplete but will be updated from time to time.

This network diagram from 1955 shows the locations to which Mount Weather had voice and teleprinter links.

Partial List of Mount Weather's Telecommunications Links

Satellite Imagery

Web Links

News Articles

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Updated on February 5, 2013 at 13:13 by Albert LaFrance