Memorable Storm

The storm panned out as it was forecast and it was definitely one of the more memorable weather events that I have had in Antarctica. It snowed for about 48 straight hours and it left behind a fair amount of snow. To put this storm in perspective, the all-time 24-hour record snowfall in McMurdo for the month of November is 8". I have not heard what the official measurements were for the storm but I think 8" would be reasonable but over longer than 24 hours. The one surprise is that it was not as windy as I expected so the snow was mostly falling lightly. We had Condition 2 weather from Wednesday evening and all day Thursday with Condition 1 on the ice shelf during that same time. Overnight on Thursday and into Friday it was changed to Condition 3 in McMurdo. We found that a little odd because much of the time that morning it should have been Condition 2. However, since it was listed as Condition 3, we were able to take a hike down to Hut Point during some of the most intense snowfall of the storm. It was so much fun.

Things have also gotten crazy busy in the last few days. A big reason for that is because we are scheduled to leave in 8 days. Making things more difficult, a week from now is a rare two-day weekend. That means we are supposed to have all of our field work done, and cargo stored or put into the system to be shipped back to Colorado, by Friday afternoon. I don't know how we are going to get everything done that we need to get done in that time. We are going into the field at local sites tomorrow (Sunday, McMurdo time) as the weather should be good and we need to get the work done. We also need to return to town in time to  get cleaned up and collect our thoughts as we are giving the weekly Sunday Science Lecture. It is going to be a very busy day. We are also primary for a twin otter flight on Monday to install the power system and put up the towers for the instruments. However, the weather does not look the best on Monday.

Sorry to keep this short but I wanted to give a quick update on the storm and our latest plans for field work. I'll try to get more out in the near future.

Going on a hike to Hut Point. Hiking is prohibited in Condition 2 weather, however this was classified as Condition 3. It wasn't Condition 3.

Myself, Scott, and George outside of Discovery Hut trying to pose similar to the early explorers.