Saturday 10 May 2008

Snow & Ice

There has been quite a bit of snowfall over the last week and some impressive drifts are forming around the buildings on base... Notice the position of the sun, this photo was taken around midday and at this time of year the sun is remaining really low in the sky, we're currently loosing around 7 minutes of daylight each day. It starts to get light around 10am and is dark again soon after 5pm. It also appears to be rather shy lately - often opting to hide behind the clouds.

Typically the windscoops form around the buildigs that we don't use in winter whilst elsewhere doorways, windows and pathways get drifted in and require daily digging.

I took a long overdue walk around Rothera Point this morning (it's been nearly a month since I last went round. It's a great walk, taking anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on how distracted you get by the wildlife and scenery). The light was far from ideal for photograpy but you get an idea of what the snow / ice is like at the moment.

As the sea temperature cools ice begins to form on the rocks. After last years' poor show we're keeping our fingers crossed for some decent sea ice this year. The surface of the sea begins to freeze once water temperatures reach -1.9 degrees C

It's best to let sleeping furries (Fur seals) lie - they're grumpy and very smelly. There are still a lot of them about (over 60 today) along with a few Crabeater seals, Elephant seals, snow petrels and gulls.

This is an impressive arched berg currently sat in North Cove, the large cloud was full of snow which descended on me seconds later.

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