Posted on 02/15/2015 3:04:29 PM PST by SamAdams76
The final flight out of the South Pole was Friday, February 13—the last chance to leave until mid-November. Those 40 or so people staying the winter will have no way out of Antarctica for around nine months. They won’t even be able to venture more than a mile or two off the base, because all the facilities are in a condensed area, and there's no point in sightseeing during the four months of darkness and two more of twilight.
The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is the southern-most of the three U.S. research stations down in Earth’s basement. It is located about a hundred meters from the pole itself. It houses around 150 people during the summer and 50 during the winter. The other stations are McMurdo Station, located on Ross Island, and Palmer Station, on Anvers Island. McMurdo is the most populous of the bunch, with 800 to 900 people residing there in the summer and nearly 150 during the winter. Winter on Antarctica’s Ross Island is slightly shorter than at the South Pole. This winter, planes will fly intermittently out of McMurdo, where winter begins on February 28, and the station’s summer crowd arrives on October 1.
The U.S. Antarctic Program doesn't fly over Antarctica during the winter, even between bases, because temperatures get below -50 degrees Fahrenheit, the point at which gasoline freezes. In the depths of winter, around the beginning of July, temperatures can drop below -100 degrees Farenheit.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
At least Spring is on the way for my area but in Antarctica, the long winter is just beginning.
Whatever happened to "Global Warming"?
To paraphrase Scrooge in Dicken's classic, "If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Global Warming' on his lips, should be brought to my backyard, and buried under my five feet of snow with a carbon stake through his heart."
Keep Antarctica. Or New England. I’d rather be doing this in the Bahamas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h0d62zOgKw
It sure sounds pretty risky to stay there ...
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Remember the lady who was diagnosed with cancer?It was a major rescue effort to get her out.
Relocate to Florida. ;)
“It sure sounds pretty risky to stay there ...”
—
Understatement of the year.
.
What about surviving winter in New England? I heard they are getting pounded with snow, wind, and very cold temps with more on the way this week!
How are FReepers there surviving it?
/johnny
“McMurdo is the most populous of the bunch, with 800 to 900 people residing there in the summer and nearly 150 during the winter”
Roll 20-30 CO-EXISXT off the deck....let them forage wood for a campfire....
Just don’t go there.
Just an average day on Mars. Though with oxygen and more gravity.
Ah, if bird brains can do it...
It’s been a dreadful month,one of the worst I’ve seen.
More coming next weekend and no thaw in sight.
I survive by eating more than I should.:-)
This too shall pass.
A popular Newbie trick down there is to put them on watch duty for polar bears.
Do these Newbies fall for it?
They are very educated people-—I thought.
.
How did they build the research facilities in such a harsh climate?
I’d like to send myself somewhere warm right now.-3 here right now,expect -10 or so later this evening.
“As I shiver by my fireplace in what has proven to be a brutal winter here in the Northeast, I need to find something that will make me feel warmer. “
And this story makes you feel warmer?
I like your paraphrase.
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