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Two
McMurdo residents venturing into the storm. Click for
a larger image.
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Finally,
Some Real Antarctic Weather
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by
Mary K. Miller
December
18, 2001
When
hurricanes approach the coast of Florida, there are usually
a few hardy (or perhaps foolhardy) souls that stay behind
instead of evacuating. I’ve heard that they will sometimes
congregate at the local watering hole, board up the windows,
and party until the storm blows through. We had the equivalent
of a hurricane party the other night at McMurdo station when
a blizzard blew in from the Ross Sea.
Our
first two weeks in Mactown have been blue skies and sunshine-and
this was the first real weather I’ve experienced here
(although Paul and Noel had some bad-weather days on Mt. Erebus).
When the storm hit, it was easy to get infected with the high
spirits of the locals. It was pretty exhilarating walking
from one building to another in 60 mph winds with sharp snowflakes
driving straight into our faces. The wind was so loud it sounded
like a fighter jet screaming through town. Fortunately, the
visibility was pretty good in town, at least we could see
from building to building. In severe blizzards, sometimes
whiteout conditions can mean that you can’t see your
hand at the end of your arm.
By
the mid-afternoon, the weather forecasters called "condition
one" outside of town, which meant that everyone in vehicles
or fields stations away from McMurdo had to hunker down in
shelters to wait it out. The trip that Julie and I had planned
to visit the penguin colony at Cape Royds was cancelled; I
heard later that they lost some buildings and tents out there
because of the high winds. In McMurdo, we were in "condition
two," which means that people had to use caution when
going outdoors and to travel around in pairs. By the evening,
impromptu "condition one" parties were organized,
and there was much dancing and revelry into the wee hours
of the morning.
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The
view from our Crary office window. Click for a larger
image.
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The
next day, I went down to the weather office and chatted with
the weather forecasters Chester Clogston and Jim Frodge. The
storm itself was unusually severe for December and was estimated
to be the size of France. It stuck around for four days and
halted all the air traffic into and out of McMurdo Station
until today. Yesterday morning when it finally cleared up,
crews started digging out the airfields and clearing snow
from the runways. With ten-foot drifts burying planes and
buildings out at Willie Field, the snow shovelers worked all
day and night so the first plane could leave at 10:00 this
morning.
Noel and I were scheduled to fly to the South Pole this morning,
but that flight was cancelled. We’re told that we’ll
go out early tomorrow morning. Things all around seem to be
getting back to normal, and the day was bright and clear,
the temps reaching up into the 30s.
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