Antarctic weather

The weather here is wild.

First thing to remind y'all of is that it's currently winter here in the southern hemisphere.  Antarctica only has 2 seasons, summer (Oct-Feb) and winter (Mar-Sept).  In the summer months, the temperature is still freezing (generally <32 degrees F, <0 degrees C) but there's sun 24 hours a day and the weather is generally milder.  Winter, on the other hand, has a mind of its own. 

A blustery day with wind swirling around some snow

When I arrived in mid-February, the temperature was hovering around zero (F).  The sun was still up 24 hours a day though it started setting in the 1am hour a few days after arriving.  The light has diminished by 15-20 minutes daily since then and the sun will stop rising on April 25 and won't return again until August 18th.  It won't be pitch black all day but we won't see the orb of the sun throughout those months.

The daily temperature average is anywhere from 0 to -30's on a typical day (-17 to -34 C), colder with the wind chill.  I walk between my dorm and the cafeteria or the cafeteria and the hospital which only takes a couple minutes outside.  But having a hood and gloves is sure helpful unless you want to sprint and then spend a few minutes warming up on the other end.  And when the snow is blowing, you put your head down and go for it.

Braving the short walk from 155 to Medical with minimal outer gear

We have 3 designated weather conditions that we need to pay attention to here.  Con 3 is the best and most common.  There are no restrictions and it's safe to move around station.  Con 2 is colder/windier with limited visibility and you have to travel with caution.  Con 1 is white out, shelter in place.  Often Con 1 is typically just present for a few minutes but you need to heed the warnings as people have gotten lost and even died in these conditions.  If you need to move from one building to the next in Con 1, you're only permitted to do so with an escort by the SAR team (Search and Rescue) using GPS.  It's rare but can definitely happen.

Driving in Con 2, snow blowing across the road and visibility not ideal

There are “apple” shelters along various routes outside of station that can be used when weather shifts or you just need to warm up a bit when out on foot

I stay warm in my Big Red and Baffin boots.  I don't often wear them but it sure is nice to have when I'm going to be outside for a period of time.  I do get hot when I'm on a walk but if I stop to watch penguins or just enjoy nature, the cold sneaks in fast.  Fingers and toes are particularly vulnerable to frostbite and I've definitely had times when I kept my glove off a bit too long to take a picture and regretted it later.  It's all about wearing appropriate attire and being prepared so you don't get into trouble.

Ready to venture out into the cold (minus gloves and goggles...)

Besides limiting travel and outdoor recreation, one of the major hangups here related to weather is delayed flights.  We have a couple of flights a month over summer.  But in winter, we have much less scheduled flights (every 1-3 months) and delays seem to abound.  For example, we had a flight scheduled to leave on 3/18/24.  It attempted to leave Christchurch two days in a row, boomeranged both times (took off, then headed back after a couple hours) and hasn't retried since, all because of "weather".  Admittedly we've had some rougher weather days, but there were a couple days that were gorgeous here and it's just hard to understand.  We were just informed that the next attempt won't be until April 8th (fingers crossed).  That's 3 weeks after the original flight date.  It mostly affects the people that are trying to leave (~50 or so) as their travel plans after now need to be adjusted.  And the 5 people scheduled to fly down are having an extended PAID surprise holiday in Christchurch.  Crazy!