Con 1 and brrr...

From: MCM-Chalet Admins Mailbox
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 4:59 PM
To: MCM-McMurdo All
Subject: Condition One may be approaching

Hello,

There is a good chance we will be going to Condition One in 30-60 minutes.  People are free to go home or to the galley from their work centers now.  Ropes will not be put up guiding people to the galley, so you may want to bring food back to your room now if that is where you decide to go, and you do not live in B155.

Kimber Beachy

Senior Administrative Coordinator for the Chalet

X2207

It's been really cold here lately.  We had about 5 consecutive days where the ambient temperature hovered around -20 to -25 F and the windchill at -50F.  The lowest I saw it go was -30F ambient with a windchill of -63F.  That's pretty dang cold.  If I take a shower and walk outside, my hair instantly freezes.  Abe and I went outside at one point on the coldest day and threw up a beaker of water and most of it turned to ice before it hit the ground!

On Sept 11, around 5pm, we got an alert on our pagers and email that they were going to be calling a condition 1, (you are not allowed to leave a building bc it is a complete whiteout and you can't stand in the wind) so to leave work early, get food, and head to your dorms.  I decided to instead stay in the big building 155 and get stranded there bc they have all the food, the internet access, and nice lounges for movies.  I figured that was a great place to be stranded.  I first ran to Crary (the science building) to get my headphones before they were going to call it. The wind was pretty ferocious.  I had some trouble standing up in it.  I got all set up to wait out the con 1 in 155, but in the end, it only lasted until 8 or 9 and then it went back to con 2 where you are allowed to walk around in the main town.  Con 3 is the fine weather where you can leave town and go on hikes and such.

9-13

The week or more long storm finally passed today.  It felt rather pleasant out without all the wind.  And today was the first time we saw the sun come up over the horizon!  The first day we needed sunglasses.  I got to spend the afternoon of this nice day (-8F, no wind) shoveling out our Ice Core Transit Facility.  It was nice to be outside for sure!