Air NZ Blog #5 - Darryn

Weather has again had an impact on operations down here at Scott Base and we went five days with no plane arriving from New Zealand. This has resulted in people scheduled to fly home getting their stays extended by several days. It wouldn't be too bad, however most of your luggage is already loaded in containers over at McMurdo and you are living off your carry-on luggage. This has also had an impact on arriving passengers.

The cold temperatures are a part of everyday life and we all adjust to the temperature day by day. To give you an idea, here is a snapshot of the temperatures each day over the past week around 0800:

Monday           -18 C   Wind-chill        -31 C   Cloudy blowing snow

Tuesday          -19 C   Wind-chill        -33 C   Fine    

Wednesday     -21 C   Wind-chill        -31 C   Cloudy snow and blowing snow

Thursday         -19 C   Wind-chill        -30 C   Fine

Friday              -24 C   Wind-chill        -28 C   Fine with virtually no wind

Saturday         -15 C   Wind-chill        -18 C   Fine, it almost feels normal now

Sunday            -9 C     Wind-chill        -18 C   Fine

The temperature at the moment does not fluctuate too much throughout the day due to the fact that we have 24 hours of daylight. What really affects the temperature is the direction of the wind and where the weather system is coming from. Around 90 percent of our weather comes from the northeast, but now and then a good southerly comes through. The southerlies normally warm up the temperature but produce tremendous winds.

Currently some of the Scott Base team are out at Cape Adare preparing for some scientific research. They have just gone through some horrendous weather where the wind speed averaged 110kph with gusts of 150kph lasting 5-10 minutes. The camp they have set up survived okay, which just goes to show that the equipment and training provided down here is top class. To go through weather like that in sub-zero temperatures would be challenging, both physically and mentally for the people, as well as being physically demanding on the equipment.

As for me, Monday and Tuesday were consumed with putting up and checking out Enduro tents to make sure they are ready for use out on the ice for upcoming science experiments.

One advantage of being a base for scientists is you have the ability to learn first-hand about what they are doing down here.

This week, we have the opportunity to hear a guest speaker talk about what they are doing and why. It is quite incredible how much research actually takes place here and how what happens can have a tremendous impact on the rest of the world. This week’s topic was around the Antarctic toothfish – quite an amazing fish that has the equivalent of anti-freeze in its blood to stop it from freezing. It grows up to 1.8m long and can weigh up to 70-80kg. A good sized one was brought back to base as an example. Not something your everyday angler will catch! This one weighed in at around 55kg and was about 1.6m long.

The end of the week has been full on with flights finally arriving from Christchurch bringing cargo and passengers. It’s been extremely busy juggling space to allow scientists who have finished their time down here to pack up their equipment to ship back to New Zealand, while new science groups are arriving or preparing to arrive with all of their scientific equipment now rolling in. Due to space constraints, it is sometimes necessary to move the same pallet of freight three or four times.

Two of our Air New Zealand colleagues Lisa and Greg arrived on Thursday's flight. They have been kept busy by Antarctica New Zealand seeing what is done down here. It has been great to be able to spend some time with fellow Air New Zealanders.