Trav's Travels: Big Storm

10/5
This morning was the last breath of a really big storm that ravaged the area the past 3 days. It was pretty crazy. Snow mixed with strong wind and cold temperatures. Basically everyone just did work inside b/c the conditions were so extreme. It was in Con 1 (meaning no one can leave a building) for 3 straight days in every area (airfields, t-site, arrival heights, scott base) except for McMurdo which was in Con 2 the whole time with a few brief periods into Con 1. To go into Con 1 it has to have a windchill below -100F, have winds sustained above 80mph, or have visibility less than 100ft sustained.. Basically it flirted with Con1 at mcmurdo the whole time and went in a couple of times. While everyone was inside, I had to fight the wind and do 6 trips back and forth between 155 and bldg 211 (where Elisha and I will live) b/c I needed to move all of my stuff into my new place by that day for my room checkout. It was pretty touch, but I bundled up, had no exposed skin and fought the strong wind. Sometimes it was hard to walk forward in the wind, but every Estes Parkian learns how to walk into strong winds.

The storm wreaked some havoc around station. Huge, 15+ foot drifts formed. To get to the weight gym during the storm I had to summit a huge drift and then slide down right into the door. Normally to enter the back of 155 you have to go up 2 sets of stairs, but with the drifting in that area, there were no stairs involved. Just walk up the drift to the door. Inside of crary we had a risk of pipes freezing, so we had heat the basement area. One of the fire suppression pipes did freeze and water leaked out. The power went out, due to the wind in one quadrant of town. This quadrant controls the sea-water pumps which mean that the aquarium went down. But maybe more importantly, we desalinate sea-water in order to get our drinking water, so an extended power outage there would mean that we would have to melt snow for water to drink. With winds that high, snow figures out how to creep into the buildings so many many of the buildings, including crary and the main building (155) had drifts INSIDE of the buildings! (see pics). Despite the heat on high, crary dropped from a normal temp of 68F down to about 50F.

In our dorm the women's bathroom is upstairs, which is where our room is (I requested upstairs so Elisha could be close to the bathroom). The men's is downstairs. The building, like most here, is lifted up several feet off the ground to keep it from being buried in snow, but this means that frigid air, as opposed to bedrock, lies directly below the floor. This means that the floor can be freezing. Literally freezing. All of the showers I took during the storm involved standing on a inch of ice in the shower that slowly melted as my hot shower water hit it. Some people where sandals in showers to avoid athlete's foot. In McMurdo you where sandals while showering to avoid frostbite. Richard joked that we should ask rec for ice-skates

We have observatories in the hills behind town where my friend Liz works. She couldn't go up there of course b/c of the weather, but can remotely monitor the anemometers (wind vanes). There are 2 up there. The data is funny b/c it shows the wind getting up to 100 knots, then all of a sudden no data. Both of them had blown away!!

Anyways, very exciting around here. But today the winds were down to 20 knots and I'm watching the sunset out of my office as we speak. beautiful sunset over the mtns!

10/6
Today was the first day that I have been here where the mercury climbed out of negative digits. We reached a balmy +3F. Don't worry, the windchill still kept us in the -20F range. Elisha left for NZ today, so she's on her way!

Elisha arrived to Christchurch today, so she's almost here!

10/7
The last Saturday night before the Summer starts (we have a population of about 250 now but will be up to nearly 800 by the time the next 4 flights come in), so the carp shop threw a big party. 2 bands played that were really fun to dance to. The first was a bluegrass band and the 2nd was a 90's electronic/dance/pop type band that everyone loved. Both were really good. And the carp shop provided everyone with free beers, so that was nice too!

It's worth reading the captions on the pictures for this blog to get an idea of things

From Liz:

The story of an Arrival Heights wind bird:

Day/Time Direction/Windspd/gusts

METAR MWS1 030900Z AUTO 17048G100KT

METAR MWS1 030910Z AUTO 17057G100KT

METAR MWS1 030920Z AUTO 17059G100KT

METAR MWS1 030930Z AUTO 17066G100KT

METAR MWS1 030940Z AUTO 17065G100KT

METAR MWS1 030950Z AUTO 17074G100KT

METAR MWS1 031000Z AUTO 17069G100KT

METAR MWS1 031010Z AUTO 17081G100KT

METAR MWS1 031020Z AUTO 17073G100KT

METAR MWS1 031030Z AUTO 16055G100KT