Antarctica--+Yes!

Antarctica

February 4th,

Hello once again,

I meant to do this right at the end of January, but better late than never I suppose.

The end of the month of January was another stormy one with the highest wind speeds for the day were no less than 20 mph for the last nine days of the month. Temperatures were warmer than normal with a record high of -22.9°C/-9.2°F on the 30th. I was a little concerned that we would not reach -30°C this month, but my worry went away on the 31st when we reached -30.6°C/- 23.1°F.

These conditions harken back what I mentioned to in the last post, but I need to mention to you where does our weather come from. This little graphic shows the two main scenarios for South Pole weather. The first one is when we grid easterly winds, cold, stable air from the eastern plateau cool us off and provide clear conditions. The second case is where winds come from the grid northwest and bring in remnants of storms from the Weddell Sea. These clouds can bring with them ice crystals, snow grains and snow as well as warmer temperatures to the South Pole. The last one on the bottom does not occur that often because mainly grid south winds get blocked off by the Transantarctic Mountains and have trouble making their way to the South Pole. When grid south winds do occur, there usually light in speed and don't contribute much to the weather. I hope that January went well for you. Here's to the next month.

P.S.: I ran into this little guy on my way back last year. He looks like he could use a friend.



January 26th

Howdy again,

Towards the end of the past week, we had a lot of clouds which kept our temperatures up above normal. The highest temperature for the week was -21.9°C/-7.4°F on the 21st while the lowest was -28.3°C/-18.9°F on the 16th. The average temperature for the week was -26.5°C/-15.7°F while the highest wind speed was 21 mph or 18 knots on the 15th. We recorded actual snowfall on the 22nd and the 23rd. Everyone at South Pole is "eagerly" awaiting the drop in temperature that occurs the second half of the month. On average, the temperature cools down about 6°C/11°F over the last two weeks of January. Stay tuned for any updates...

A small weather lesson about how South Pole is different from the rest of the world, namely conditions are bad when the barometric pressure is high and good weather occurs when the barometric pressure is low. -It starts off with the physical property that cold air is more dense than warm air. -Next, in the rest of the world, the atmosphere cools as you go up or in other words, we have warm air below and cold air above. -At the South Pole, all of the cold air collects near the surface and warmer air is above us or the atmosphere warms up as you go up in altitude. This phenomenon is called an inversion. -When warmer air moves to colder air, clouds develop by a process called condensation. This is where most of our weather comes from. -When cold air moves to warmer air, skies clear and weather is more tranquil. -The air moves to a point at the surface and shoots up the atmosphere under low pressure, while under high pressure the air moves down to the surface and spreads outward. -Therefore in mid-latitudes, under lower pressure, the warm air moves to a point at the surface and moves up into the colder air and creates clouds, storms or worse aloft. When we have higher pressure colder air aloft moves down to the surface where the warmer air is and conditions become fair. -At the South Pole, under higher pressure, the warmer air aloft moves down to the surface where the colder air resides and creates our clouds, winds and snow. Conversely, when we have lower pressure, cold air at the surface moves up to where the warmer air is and temperatures become colder as the skies clear.



I hope this shows a little side of what we meteorologists have to contend with at the South Pole.

Hello,

As you might expect, the South Pole is very, very cold even for January which is our warmest month. So far, our warmest temperature for the month has been -20°C or -4°F on the 12th. To protect ourselves from the cold temperatures, we wear our big red parkas and other warm clothing. The South Pole is located in the middle of a 9,300 foot (2835 meter) high plateau, so that in part makes our air very dry and hard to breathe. Most of the precipitation that occurs at the South Pole are ice crystals. They have small impact in terms of accumulation. When the sun shines on them, the ice crystals can sparkle in the sky. Actual snowflakes don't occur that often, usually snow will fall in December or January.

We do many different jobs at the South Pole. My job is to observe and forecast the weather at the South Pole to make sure that planes arrive safely. Conditions can change rather quickly at times, but it can be fun with that type of challenge. Other people do construction work, cooking and helping with various science projects.



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