Some fun stuff today. First, I have been mocked for writing the date and temp on a card every week rather than just using the weather posting that's available on our intranet. So I give in, I'll just give you the intranet screen each week. Then I was further mocked when I took this picture with my camera rather than just emailing myself a screen shot, so maybe next week I'll truly get with the program. But for now....
So you'll notice we've gone below -100F. It's actually been below -100 for three days now. This is a big South Pole thing, as there's a tradition called the 300 Club, wherein when the outside temps are below -100, people go in the sauna at 200+ degrees for as long as they can stand it (at least 30 minutes is advisable) and then run naked outside to the geographic pole marker, giving their body a 300-degree temperature difference shock. This tradition is frowned upon by program management, so I can neither confirm nor deny that there have been any new entrants into the 300 Club the past few days. I can only say that the temps have been a big subject of conversation and excitement. And that the very low outside temps (the record low recorded here is -117F, and there have been years when it has never gotten below -100F, so maybe this unusually long, unusually early cold streak is a sign we could break the record this winter?) mean a colder station as well. My room has been about 56F every morning when I wake up, and there is major frost accumulating on the edges of my insulated windowsill cover. Chilly!
Anyway, the other fun thing about this week's snapshot is that the moon was just starting to rise behind the telescopes when I took today's picture. So that's the orangey dot you see in this shot. Enjoy!
During my year (1994-1995) we didn't see -100F or colder until September, just before sunrise. You've got yourself one chilly start to the winter season.
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