Extreme Cold
Even though I’m in Antarctica, this trip has been much warmer than my last trip. Last year it was -40 (C or F, take your pick) for days at a time. This year it has hovered around -3C to 0C. Why is it so much warmer? Because I’m on a boat this year, and the air temperature is limited by the water which never gets very cold, even when covered by a thin layer of ice, whereas last year I was on the continent (covered by 9,000 ft. of ice).
But today we met a cold front and it is a record (for this cruise) at -14C. The sea is smoking and mirages are appearing due to the temperature difference between the -1C water and the -14C air. The icebergs in the distance look like they are floating on air and the sea smoke is wafting by the boat. Some of our instrument sensors are even having some problems if exposed for more than a few minutes to the extreme cold before going swimming.
Location: 0.39 nautical miles off the center of
the Getz ice shelf, Antarctica.
(lat: -74.012, lon: -118.113)
