Seasons

Current Temp Ambient:     -11      Windchill:   -33
Windspeed (knots):              11
Sunrise:                                0633
Sunset:                                 2058 (8:58 PM)

This will be a horribly boring post.  All I've been doing is working basically, so if you want to hear about the RAM I upgraded or the power supply I replaced, just email me and I'd be happy to tell you all about it.

We have basically three work related seasons down here.  Of course the solstice is still relevant, we are still on the planet, but we define these work seasons as such:

Winter - from about March 1st to about August 20th.  There are no flights down here during the winter season.    Though it doesn't go completely dark until about mid-June, Antarctica loses daylight at the same rapid pace with which we are gaining it now (around 15 minutes a day or so).  There are about 200 people in McMurdo in the winter.

Winfly - from about August 20th to October 3rd or so.  So that's now!  Winfly is just a pormanteau (2 words squished together) for Winter and Flight.  There are 3 flights that come down around the last week of August to get another 350 or so people down here to help the winter-overs get read for the main summer season.  Some winter overs leave at Winfly, but most stay, so population jumps to about 500 or so.  Winfly officially ends on Monday when the first flight of Mainbody gets here.  What is mainbody you ask?  What a coincidence, I was just getting to that...

Mainbody - October 3rdish to March 1stish.  During mainbody we have several flights a week, sometimes more than one in a day, and although the rest of the haggered, pale winter overs will leave, population will jump to about 1200 in McMurdo.  Although there are a bunch of people I want to see, I've really enjoyed the pace of Winfly and I'm not sure I'm ready for the hoards of people, but as I have no choice, I'll just have to adapt!  In the plus column are fresh food, mail, and and an increased work pace that will help the days go by faster.

As for the sun, when I first got here, the sunrise was around 9:00 AM and sunset at about 4:00 PM.  After just a month, we went from about 7 hours of daylight to about 14.  By the end of October, we'll be at 24/7 sun in the sky.  The weather will get nicer and nicer and I'll get to hike, so I am looking forward to that!

Wake up, the boring post is over!