Local Posting Day and Time- 1-19-08 8:35PM
Central Standard Posting Day and Time- 1-19-08 1:35AM
McMurdo Weather
Temperature- 36F Wind Direction- None Wind Speed- 0 Wind Chill- 36F
Answer to Yesterday’s WATIZIT
?????????? ?????????? ??????????
Today’s WATIZIT Picture
WATIZIT
It was too far away to get a picture, but this morning I saw a killer whale in the path cleared by the Oden.
Oden's Progress
It was sticking its head straight up out of the water, probably looking for the seals that we have been seeing lounging on the edge of the ice.
Lounging seals and spectators
George and I boarded a Huey helicopter to fly out to Pegasus South weather station today.
We were dropped off with a "hot” landing, which means the props were still spinning. That was a little unnerving. As the helo tech was yelling intructions to us and unloading our equipment, she was staying bent over and warning us to stay low and forward, so we didn't run into the rear rotor. We definitely followed her instructions!!! Then she boarded the helo and they left us on the sea ice in a cloud of snow blown up by the prop. About 3-4 hours later they came back to get us.
Hot Landing
Anytime we leave McMurdo in an airplane or helo, we are required to wear our a large part of our ECW(abbreviation) Extreme Cold Weather clothing (extreme cold weather gear) and bring the rest. Here is a TAKS (for those of you in Texas) math question for you. How much does Mr. Beckendorf weigh when he is wearing the ECW(abbreviation) Extreme Cold Weather clothing gear.
He weighes 150 pounds, before putting on the <span class="tx-tooltip" tabindex="0">ECW<span class="tx-tooltip-text" id="polartrec_vocabulary-1548">(abbreviation) Extreme Cold Weather clothing</span></span>. After he puts on the wool socks (.5 pounds), long johns (1.5 pounds), bunny boots (7 pounds), insulated bibs (2.5 pounds), the fleece jacket, and Big Red- that’s the parka (7 pounds) how much will the scale read.
The location of the station gave us a great view of Mt Erebus rising up behind Ob Hill, which is beside McMurdo.
Ob Hill and Mt. Erebus
This weather station was placed where it is, close to an airstrip, to help predict weather conditions for the airstrip. The station has not been working.
Mr B. at Pegasus AWS
We could see why it hasn't been working when we pulled the lid off of the battery case.
Corrosion in battery case
Notice the date on the batteries. Up until recently these batteries have been working fine since Oct., 1990!!!!
1990 Batteries
Comments