Author Archives: Allen Foster

Weather: Cold, with very low winds. Clear skies to partly cloudy. Temps -55F with windchill near -80F. Since the winds were low, I had to go outside for a cold weather run. It’s rare that winds are steadily below 5mph and that makes a huge difference in staying warm. Put in about 7 miles towardContinue reading “Feb 19 – Day 51 on Ice”

Weather: Getting colder. We have dipped below -50F with windchills below -80F at times. Generally clear skies and light winds. I went skiing with some folks on Sunday, got about 6miles. It’s a slow slog at times, but can be kind of meditative once you get into a groove. After a small readout hiccup thatContinue reading “Feb 18th – Day 50 on Ice”

Weather: Cold, windy. Temps near -40F , winds nearing 20knts (~10m/s) ((~20mph)), wind chill -70F. Lots of snow blowing along the ground, lots of snow building up behind any structure. The sun continues it’s descent and is now at about 12 degrees elevation. Today was a very smooth workday, observations went on without a hitch,Continue reading “Feb 15th – Day 47 on Ice, Day 1 of Winter”

Last day of Summer!! The last LC-130 flight will take the remaining few summer crew people out in a few hours (mostly fire-crew who needed to stay here to bring in the LC-130s). Yesterday more than 60 summer people left, and the station is now preparing to move into winter schedule. The weather has beenContinue reading “Feb 14th – Day 46 on Ice”

Weather: Cold, clear, windy. Temperatures around -30F, windchill -60F. Cold and getting colder. Winter is fast upon us now. People are clearing out of the station and outbound passenger lists are long. We’re getting quite a few flights each day now (hopefully) carrying pax in and (mostly) out, bringing in cargo and taking out waste.Continue reading “Feb 10th – Day 42 on Ice”

Weather: Crappy observing weather; overcast but not windy today. Temperature: -26C nearly no wind chill. Quite pleasant outside, except that there is very low contrast. Big news: my hockey sticks did arrive! My ridiculous packing job worked! I tried out my roller blades on the gym floor… they kind of worked, though I can’t turnContinue reading “Feb 8th – Day 40 on Ice”

Weather: Unusual winds blew warm air and moisture over the mountains and up to Pole. We even got up to -6F today(!!!) which is crazy warm for mid-February! It has been cloudy and windy for the past few days so temps are on the warmer side. This afternoon we had -26F with a -44F windchill.Continue reading “Feb 7th – Day 39 on Ice”

Weather: Colder, -30F with windchills nearing -55F. We did have a day or two of high winds and clouds a few days ago but generally the weather has been nice; sunny with few clouds and light winds. We are now less than two weeks from station close; nominally on Feb 14th. We had our firstContinue reading “Feb 4th : Day 36 on Ice”

The temperatures have been steadily decreasing. We’re now around -35F with windchill down near -60F. It has been nice and sunny though, which is a plus! This week has been busy with EHT training, and mock observations. In order for the EHT receiver to observe, we have to install special secondary and tertiary mirrors onContinue reading “Jan 31st – Day 32 on Ice”

Weather is calm and getting colder. -25F today. Yesterday was Science Sauna Sunday, our weekly sauna session and since the winds were nice and low, we decided to do a Pole run. A Pole run is a popular event here, where one enjoys the heat of the sauna and then runs out to the geographicContinue reading “Jan 27th – Day 28 on Ice”