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By Peter Rejcek
A trio of storms in April blanketed McMurdo Station in
Antarctica, breaking a 41-year record for snowfall and
coming close to challenging a world record for wind speed.
By May 1, some snow plowing was still ongoing nearly
three weeks after the series of snow storms began. More
than 6 feet of snow fell between April 11 and April 25.
“We’re pretty much dug out. The roads are cleared,”
said Gary Fromm, McMurdo Station winter site manager with
Raytheon Polar Services , the prime contractor to the
National Science Foundation (NSF) . “They have some
piles that they’re dispersing down in the harbor
area and places like that.”
The first storm began the evening of April 11 and dumped
17.5 inches over four days, including 14 inches in just
24 hours, a new record. The previous record had been 10
inches over a 24-hour period in April 1968, according
to Ed Saul, a weather observer working at McMurdo for
the winter.
Temperatures dropped to about minus 15 degrees Celsius,
with winds gusting at 78 knots and sustained winds of
up to 55 knots. The heavy snowfall and wind caused long
periods of almost zero visibility and immense snowdrifts
throughout the station.
The condition one storm largely shut down operations
for 12 hours while it raged, Fromm said. The U.S. Antarctic
Program uses three classifications for storms. The most
severe, condition one, involves at least one of the following:
wind speeds of greater than 55 knots, visibility of less
than 100 feet, or a wind chill of less than or equal to
minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 degrees Celsius).
Less than a week later, another powerful storm with
similar winds dropped nearly 35 inches on McMurdo in just
three days, with 20 inches coming in a 24-hour period,
breaking the record again and doubling the old 41-year
record high.
A third storm followed close behind, adding more than
26 inches in four days, though with lesser winds.
“Storms such as [these] are common during the change
of seasons but can happen any time of the year,”
Saul said. “Severe weather in April and August seems
to come to mind. Weather can also be unsettled in September,
October and February.”
Pretty much the whole station, with a winter population
of 153 people, pitched in to restore operations, Fromm
said. “Fleet Ops did the bulk of the work with the
heavy equipment, but people were out shoveling and running
snow blowers and doing a lot of manual work.”
Work also included repairing building roofs damaged in
the storm, frozen pipes and restoring power. “We’re
doing good,” Fromm said. “We’re back to
order.”
A team also drove out to Black Island, site of communications
equipment across McMurdo Sound, to replace some solar
panels that were lost to the wind and make other repairs.
Wind gusts reached greater-than-hurricane strength at
Black Island, with speeds clocked at 193 knots (211 mph)
and sustained winds at 99 knots (114 mph). The all-time
surface wind-speed record is 231 mph, recorded during
an April windstorm in 1934 at the Mount Washington Observatory.
“This was a pretty significant storm,” said
Fromm, who grew up in cold and snowy Minnesota.
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