weather - Teaching On Ice

18th December

The Antarctic Great Escape is in progress. The Ilyushin jet left Punta Arenas 18 minutes ago and is due here in a little over four hours.

However, the snow machines are still clearing, the wind is picking up and out of the window I can see the weather system, which could ruin visibility, heading our way. It’s going to be tight – can the plane get down onto the ice and off again before the wind, snow or visibility shuts us down?

A couple of days ago frustrations at the delay seemed to be boiling over, with some people trying to find someone to complain at. Tension in camp is still high. It will be interesting to see what happens if this plane gets turned around before landing (very possible at the moment due to the wind speed).

What’s ridiculous is that currently I’m keen to get home, but in a week or so I’ll be wanting to come back!

17th December
Funny how good news nearly always seems to come with bad news.

The good news is that there is a weather window, from now until tomorrow evening, during which a plane could land and pick us up. The bad news is that the runway needs to be cleared first and that is no easy job.

Breathe North!
The runway is about 3km long and 70m wide, it’s covered by about 30cm of snow and the snow blower can only be used if the wind is from the right direction (which it was until 5am this morning, but now it's not and clearing has stopped). The further bad news is that if we don’t leave tomorrow the weather is unlikely to let us go for another week … Christmas Day! So, if you’re reading this please could you help us get home for Christmas by breathing facing North (as it’s a wind from the North that is stopping the runway from being cleared).

Film requests
So for now it’s all about helping out around camp, watching lectures, writing lesson plans and trying to get any last bits of film that will help us when teaching (so far I have the meteorologist and comms people on camera, next up is the medic if we get a chance). If there are any photos or bits of film that you can think of then please post on the comments section and I will try to get them forwarded to me in Antarctica. Obviously if I leave tomorrow then I won’t be able to do much about them, but if I’m here for Christmas I’ll have more time.

Leave your requests for Phil! Post your comments below and they will be sent to him.

14th December
The storm that continues to keep us trapped in Antarctica is an excellent example of the difference between weather and climate. The climate of Antarctica is that of a desert with very little precipitation. Generalised data that I saw before we came away showed the coastal areas of Antarctica receiving about 30cm of snow a year and the inland areas 5cm. However, weather appears to ignore the long term trends that are climate. Over the past four days, 25cm of snow has fallen at Patriot Hills and a further 10cm is expected today and tomorrow. Now, by Alpine standards this isn’t a lot, but remember that we are living in a desert where those figures are definitely unusual.

The conditions have been caused by two depressions heading inland. Normally depressions circulate around Antarctica from West to East (the same direction as in the Northern Hemisphere, the direction is caused by the spin of the Earth) affecting only the coastal areas. However, these depressions have changed course and moved towards the Pole. On their way, they have gained height, broken up and dropped the moisture that is inside them.

Is the weather we are experiencing 'freak' weather? That is a difficult question to answer, as there are no long term weather records for Patriot Hills. To work out the climate of an area you need a minimum of 30 years of continuous records; there is nowhere near that amount of data for this location, so we can say that the weather is unusual, but not necessarily freakish.

Is this climate change?
Also, the temperatures at the Pole are very warm for this time of year (-26 deg C). Is this global warming or is this simply unusual weather (the snow and high temperatures caused by low cloud stretch all the way from the coast to the Pole)? You decide … think about the fact that for it to be climate change you would need to show a long term change, preferably over 30 years or more … but then if we wait on that definition will we act too late to avert climate change?