Astrobiologist Dale Andersen Antarctic Status Report 5 February 2018: Bad Weather Continues
Dale sent this message via Iridium on 5 February 2018 at 10:24:46 AM EST: “Hi Keith, Thanks for the update – we stayed inside most of the day listening to the wind blow, with average windspeeds of 40 knots gusting to 45 knots or more off and on throughout the late morning and afternoon.”
“Early this morning (3am) we had much stronger winds, probably hitting 60-70 knots at times as predicted by the forecast. During those hours we had gravel bouncing off the side of our small hut; but it’s well built and we have had a nice day catching up on reading and other light tasks. The current forecast suggests that we will have a break in the weather tomorrow and helo flights may be able to resume.
If that is the case, three of us will return to Syowa Station and three will return to the icebreaker Shirase for their return to Sydney, Australia where they will catch flights back to Japan. On the 10th, a Basler will return 14 of us, all part of the JARE 59 summer expedition, to Novo Station. Weather permitting, a couple of days later we will fly to Cape Town and then catch flights home from there.
Sadly, this may be my last note from the field, but I will send a few more updates as we make our way to Syowa, S17 and Novolazarevskya Station.
Cheers Dale”
Astrobiologist Dale Andersen Antarctic Status Report 4 February 2018: Bad Weather
5 Feb Weather report
“Gale 950 hPa near 58S Greenwich Meridian, weakening moving towards E. Trough 970 hPa north of Novo near 68S 15E, weakening shifting W, leading to bad weather in eastern and central DML until WEDNESDAY. On WEDNESDAY new GALE 955 hPa close north of Syowa, on THURSDAY slowly weakening and moving towards W, after short improvement on TUESDAY again bad weather conditions in eastern DML.”
“Syowa TODAY, broken clouds at various levels, at times so me showers as snow or sleet, severe storm with 50-60kt with gusts of 70kt from NE, in the afternoon slowly decreasing to 20kt/in inland heavy blowing snow and white out. TONIGHT, cloudy, but predominantly dry, winds around 20kt from NE. TUESDAY, friendly mixture of sun and clouds, dry, winds 10-20kt from NE, in the course of the day at times calm. WEDNESDAY, cloudy, later upcoming snow or sleet again, increasing winds again to 50-60kt from NE/blowing snow and white out again! THURSDAY, unsettled with lot of clouds and showers, decreasing winds of NE to 20kt.”
