Coldest place on Earth?

Question

NOT IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE?

Answer 1

Hi,

The coldest temperature ever recorded outside the Arctic Circle was on 21 July 1983 in Vostok, Antarctica.  On that day, the temperature dropped to -89 Celsius.

Outside either polar circle, the coldest ever recorded was 2 February 1892 in Verkhoyansk, Russia where it dipped to -68 Celsius.  This record was also matched on 6 February 1933 in Oymyakon, Russia.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Mid-winter is the one holiday that is celebrated in Antarctica and nowhere else. The 21st marked the official winter solstice and we took last Saturday off to celebrate the turning period of the season and the returning of the sun. I spent most of the day just relaxing and getting ready for our annual Mid-Winter dinner which turned out to be one of the most enjoyable events I have done down here. The Galley was completely transformed into a fine dining restaurant complete with linen table cloths, ice candles, and covered chairs. It was great to see everyone dressed up and enjoying the wonderful food that our galley staff had prepared.

We have also received Mid-Winter greetings from the other stations on the continent and it brings into perspective that although we are isolated here on Ross island. There are over 30 different stations from 17 different countries wintering on the continent, each one celebrating the turning of the season in their own way.

On the work side, things are going great. We haven’t had any major problems and that’s just how I like it. We received the manifests so that we know who is coming down in August and although it will be nice to see some returning faces in August, we are such a close group I have a feeling that when 200 people show up it will be like they are invading our town. Our population will more than double and we are already being told that we will have to have roommates again until October.

Well that’s it for now. I’ve put some new pictures in the photo section. Take a look and enjoy.

Eric

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Condition 2

April 24th, 2007

Hello Everyone,

It is really beginning to feel like winter here in McMurdo. The temperatures have started to drop and we had our first condition 2 day because visibility was less then ¼ mile. We have a big pool going for the first condition 1 day (visibility less than 100’,  wind speed greater than 55 knots, or wind-chill less than -100°F), and a few times today we thought it might happen. The last sunset was yesterday, but because of the weather this past weekend no one was able to see it. It still gets light out from around 10:30am until 4:00pm, but the sun is below the horizon 24 hours a day. In only a couple more weeks we will be in total darkness 24 hours a day until the sun returns in August. I have put a couple of pictures up of some of the beautiful sunsets that we have had the past few weeks. I took a trip to Castle rock (a 900’ tall rock about 3 miles north of town) to retrieve the emergency telephone from a survival shelter last week and the view was amazing. We were there just before sunrise with no wind at all, you could literally see 100 miles across the ice sheet and because the sun wasn’t up yet it lit up the horizon with a beautiful pink and crimson glow, truly awe inspiring. This morning a couple of us went to the New Zealand base to participate in a memorial service for ANZAC day an Australian/New Zealand holiday that remembers those who died service in the armed forces, not unlike memorial day for us. Afterwards they invited us in for biscuits (cookies) and tea and we had a wonderful morning with our Kiwi neighbors. Well that’s it for now, hopefully I will be updating this more then once a month.

If anyone has any questions or you just want to drop me a line and say hi (I love hearing from people back home) you can send me an email at “andersoney at hotmail.com” just replace the “at” with the @.

Eric

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Winter has begun

March 16th, 2007

Hello Everyone,

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything so let me get you caught up. The winter season is now in full swing here. It has been three weeks since the last flight and we have all settled into our winter routines. So far I like the reduced population; it allows us to get to know one another much better then when we are overcrowded in the summer. I have now moved into my own room which is quite large. During the summer season my room holds 4 people so I have 3 extra beds, dressers and nightstands. I moved everything around, added a sofa, coffee table, and a TV and it is quite cozy. We have also started our winter recreation activities. I am bowling once a week on a league here and the really cool thing is that we not only are we the southernmost bowling alley on the Earth, but we also have the oldest Brunswick bowling lanes and the last manual Brunswick pinsetters in the world. They were installed in the 60’s and Brunswick has offered to completely renovate the bowling ally with fully automated lanes at no charge if they could have them for their museum, but they are always turned down by the NSF and residents who like to hold on the this Antarctic icon. We are also playing darts with the South Pole on Friday nights which is a lot of fun because we load up the van and go to the New Zealand base where we throw darts and use a HF radio to call the South Pole with the scores, whichever team goes out first wins. Well that about all for now, the whole station is getting ready for St. Patty’s day tonight which should be a blast hopefully I will get some pictures to share with everyone.

Eric

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The final countdown

February 20th, 2007

Hi everyone,

Another week has gone by and the station is shutting down. We only have a week left and then we will be on our own. It is exciting to think that in a few days we will be cutoff from the rest of the world and have to rely on each other to make the season a success. On Sunday the temperature at South Pole went down around -50° F, the coldest temperature that the airplanes can safely fly in, and a few hours later the last 3 C-130 flights of the season landed here in McMurdo signaling the beginning of winter at the south pole. In only a few more days myself and 123 other people will stand on the deck of the NSF chalet here in McMurdo and have a Champaign toast to a successful winter season as the last C-17 flies overhead taking with it the last of the summer season crew.

Eric

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Summer is almost over

February 11th, 2007

Hi Everyone,

Not much to report this week, we have finished offloading both the Paul Buck (our fuel tanker) and the American Tern (our cargo ship). Unfortunately because ship offload is the stations busiest time of year, there weren’t any recreation activities planned this week. I have also noticed that the population down here is starting to thin out. We had about 1100 people here when I first arrived and now we are down to 614. This upcoming week we will have 3 flights instead of the normal 2 and each flight holds a maximum of 140 people. Only two more weeks until station close and the start of winter.

Eric

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A 3 hour tour

February 5th, 2007

Hello everyone,

This week was filled with fun and excitement. On Sunday the Polar Sea was back in port and we were able to go on a “morale cruise”. My group was able to go out on the 2:00 cruise and it was fantastic. We spent about 3 hours going up and down the channel, and saw penguins, whales, seals, and even a Russian cruise ship. The coolest part about the whole thing was when we actually got to break the ice. A 400 foot 13,000 ton ship driving up onto the ice sheet just like you were beaching a 20’ boat on a sand bar, slowing to a halt and then crushing through 20 feet of ice. It was quite a rush to be standing on the bow. We were also able to tour every part of the ship and talk to all the “coasties” that work on her. You can find more info on the polar sea here. Also this week we had some fun and excitement from our NASA buddies downstairs. The building I work out of is called the JSOC or Joint Space Operations Center.  NASA (the space part) works on the first floor and my department, Network Operations is on the second floor. NASA’s roll down here is usually as a ground station for polar orbiting satellites. They send and receive data from satellites 24 hours a day and send it back to the US for processing. But this week was different because there was a space shuttle mission, and whenever there is a space shuttle mission all the ground stations around the world must be ready in case Houston needs to send any information to the shuttle. Well last Wednesday the guys downstairs got the call that there was some traffic that needed to be sent to the shuttle. We were supposed to have a maintenance window (a time period where certain services are unavailable) but because of the critical traffic to the space shuttle we had to cancel it and focus on keeping the satellites links open for NASA. Pretty cool that we were actually helping with a space shuttle mission. Just another week in McMurdo.

Eric

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Happy Camper School

January 28th, 2007

Hi Everyone,

Another week has gone by and things are going great. I am finally getting into the routine of things down here. I think I am adjusted to the 6 day work week, and the 24 hours of daylight doesn’t bother me anymore. This week I took an outdoor survival class called “Snowcraft I”. We all call it “Happy Camper School” because it is required for anyone traveling to remote camp sites. Day one we all got together and had lectures on cold weather injuries, preventing hypothermia, and survival gear. Then we all loaded up in the Hagglund and traveled out on the shelf Ice to Snow Mountain city which is about 8 miles from town. We spent the rest of the day setting up tents, learning how to use our stoves, digging snow trenches, and making other shelters. We all had a good dinner of re-hydrated meals and went off to sleep. I chose to sleep in a snow trench which is basically a hole dug about 4 feet in the snow, and it was pretty cozy. When we woke up the next morning we packed up camp

Answer 3

You took away my answer...

Maybe Siberia?