Happy Thanksgiving....I'm thankful for the Condition 2

Please excuse that this posted wicked late, I wanted to upload it before thanksgiving ended for you guys but it has been busy here. I hope you are ready for another dense and in-depth blog entry.

Happy Thanksgiving y'all! So as you can imagine Thanksgiving is celebrated slightly different here. First instead of Turkey, we eat penguin...which isn't as good trust me. Also the town celebrates it on a Saturday rather than on Thursday. This is so everyone who works in "town" can enjoy the next day off. Thanksgiving Dinner is served in several different shifts. I believe 3pm, 5pm, 7pm and Midnight. This for people who still have to work that day. It is also encouraged that everyone volunteers to help with the meal. A bunch of us are going to be washing dishes, so that should be fun, I suppose.

Thanksgiving Day here was interesting. I woke up to a little snow, which was neat. The snow mostly around here is powder, since it is so dry. So no, I can't make snowmen...just snow angels. Oh, snowballs are hard to form as well. But When my thanksgiving started it was a "Condition 3", but that snow storm lead up to a "Condition 2" after a little while.

So this helps me segway into our segment today which covers weather. McMurdo classifies weather as "Conditions". Based on each condition, there are restrictions on travel, recreation and sometimes jobs. Typically everyday down here as been a "Condition 3", which is basically the normal weather. Please take that with a grain of salt. It really is all a mater of perspective. In a Condition 3 there are no restrictions on travel, and weather is generally pleasant.

"Condition 2" is defined as, "Weather conditions when visibility is less than ¼ mile, or wind speed is between 48 and 55 knots (about 55 mph to 65 mph), or wind chill factor is between -75°F and -100°F (or between -24°C and -38°C). " Generally when there is a condition two, only required personell are allowed to go to their jobs. An example of this is the Fire Department. Now, another element of this is that different sections down here can be assigned different conditions. Weather will sometimes be affected by the Antarctic winds and stay in one section. For example, the airfields might be a Condition 2 but downtown McMurdo will be at Condition 3. Often the further away from McMurdo, the worse the weather can be. This could be that they are not as well protected by land and buildings.

Last but not least is the legendary "Condition 1". It was featured on "Good Morning America", and it also is on youtube. Condition 1, essentially limits all personell from leaving their work area's and/or living area's. Basically you are held up until the storm goes Condition 2. For this reason many workstations keep food stocked up. Though, like most things down here, the TV dinners have been matured in the freezers for quite sometime. Condition 1 is defined as, "Weather conditions when visibility is less than 100 ft., or wind speed is greater than 55 knots (more than 60 mph), or wind chill is greater than -100°F (-38°C). " I would go a step further and define it personally as, "Your Tauntaun won't make it past the first marker!" weather. Or Hoth Cold. Artoo says that the chances of survival are 725 to 1. Actually Artoo has been known to make mistakes...from time to time...This video was not shot by me, but I promise I'll get some footage of the storms down here up for you guys.




The way that they inform the general population here on the weather conditions is very thorough. Most of us carry pagers, that will often be paged with change in any conditions in the surrounding area. There are also scrolling notifiers at the main entrances of all the buildings. These are controlled remotely and updated often. They also send out company/base wide emails and if all that fails, they also have the news channel down here to display the current conditions.

Today (Your Thanksgiving), was a Condition 1 at Pegasus and Condition 2 in McMurdo. So that was fun. I wore my big red jacket and goggles to work. The photo to the left was on the television this morning for the "weather" forecast. Not bad eh?

Oh, so yesterday (Thanksgiving for me) my shift had our sort of thanksgiving party. It was at Hut 10. Hut 10 is one of the most exclusive buildings that can be rented out when it is not occupied. Hut 1o is one of the nicest buildings I have been in down here. It has a wicked awesome porch, which looks out to the bay. Complete with lawn chairs. The National Science Foundation has their own VIP dorms at the base, but this is VIP to the MaxX!!!! To give you an idea of how VIP this place is, we have people like Former President Clinton come here, when he was in office. Anyway, general population can rent it at night to host events. Often the Fire Department will have their parties there. Please excuse the one photo that is out of focus. By the time I downloaded on my computer, Hut 10 was locked up, so I couldn't take another shot. I'm not sure if these photo's really do it justice. But TRUST ME, it was wicked nice. I'd compare it to like a beach house on the Cape. It has 3 Bedrooms (The photo is from the Master Bedroom). Hut 10 also has 2 full bathrooms and 1 small kitchen. Also note the sound equipment and television, not bad for an Antarctic dorm.




When the party started it was barely a Condition 2. The photo earlier was taken when it was at the height of the storm. Here is another shot. I shot the same area, the next day . The mountain looks amazing, though the photo is still taken when the Pegasus area was at Condition 1.

So I hope you all had a wicked awesome Thanksgiving. I'll try to get some photos of the party and stuff down here. Until then, take care and I hope you all had a great holiday.


P.S. The Penguin instead of Turkey was a joke...that would be a treaty violation. Which is a ticket off the ice, a trip to Federal Prison and a $10,000 fine.