I went around the world and all I got was a shirt.

Merry Christmas everyone,

As the title states, I did the traditional race around the world on Thursday. I wasn't in any elite shape or anything like that, but I kept a steady pace, didn't stop to walk and finished the 2.3 mile (3.7 km) track under 25 minutes (unofficially). It was a long day for me overall spanning 21.5 hours, which included getting ready for Christmas dinner by doing laundry and showering, a nine-hour shift, the race and finally, picture taking and chatting it up with one of my old roommates from McMurdo before he got sent home.

Also, I have a picture of an upper-air sounding (just to let you know that I actually DO work around here). The data on this chart comes from our radiosondes during our bi-daily balloon launches. Since I'm on night shift now, this is the first thing that I do on shift. This graph tells us what the temperature, moisture, and winds are above us are and that information is used to help us forecast the weather in this nearly isolated environment. For the next two weeks or so, I will be responsible for the 1200 UTC sounding. For past soundings for the Pole and anywhere else in the world, use this link which I like: http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html

I hope you have a wonderful holiday, whichever you celebrate.

Peace.

A Bit of Night Shift Nonsense/Thinking of back home.

For those of who say that it's cold where I'm staying, think again for those living in Denver.

12/15/2008 1000 UTC (3:00 am MST) Temperatures:

-25.8 C/-14.4 F South Pole
-27.8 C/-18.0 F Denver International Airport

So there, for one hour at least I can say that I'm not at the coldest spot.

Other news from me is that I'm debating whether or not I want to submit something for the Pole Art Show at the galley on Sunday. Still have some work to do with that and other things....

Even though I'm doing well, I have to think of life after the Pole, since I'm halfway through my contract now. I'll be sure to keep an open mind about the future and stare at the Christmas decorations that were recently put up in our office.

December Update

Hello again,

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth yet. I'm still around and things are still going fine. Now I'm on the night shift and I'm still trying to adjust to the changes. At least I have the day off today. As far as the job goes, there have been some growing pains at first when it comes to observing and record taking, but like everything else, with enough practice I'm getting the routine down. It's been kind of busy the past couple of days since the meteorology coordinator is coming to Pole on Tuesday, so we have to get everything in order for his one day visit.

The Thanksgiving party was great last week. However, I think that sangrita and me are not going to be good friends anytime soon. Clothes shopping has gotten a little better with a slightly wider selection, but I'm so much a slacker that it maybe too late to get what I need to get off to everybody...

I hope that you are all safe and happy now. I'll keep you updated, per usual.

Cheers.

The Moment that you have been waiting for.

I decided to send this post along, since this is a special day for most of you and that you give thanks for all of the wonderful things that have happened in your life or the people that you have meet or continue to hold dear. This day is for you to give thanks for that.

As for myself, I'm thankful that you're keeping up the internet traffic with this page...;P But, seriously, thanks for that you have supported and put up with me for the length of time that I have known you and that I'll do my best to support your endeavors.

Also if you want these photos at full resolution, please e-mail me at pjmarz at gmail dot com or phillip dot marzette at usap dot gov.

Gobble Gobble

P.S.: Thanks for the check, sis ;)

Work, work and more work.

Hey,

Right now I'm close to finishing up a stretch where I have been working in the Meteorology office everyday for the past two and a half weeks. Although, the first half has been training and about a week stretch of one where planes weren't landing at the Pole because of bad weather which would make my job easier, it would be nice just to rest up and not have to worry about showing up to the office.

But just because I have my primary job out of the way after 9 hours a day, there are still plenty of things to take care of at the Pole. For instance, there are house mouse duties that everyone has to perform on station and I've volunteered to be on the Emergency Response Team. I also been asked if I wanted to participate for the pole newspaper and there also opportunities to help out in the galley and the dish pit. Also, there are my own hobbies I've been concentrating on like some drawings and creative writing, for fun of course.

This explains how even in just four months, that I have plenty of tasks to take on. Well, at least I won't get bored.

Take care until next time.

The revolving door at the station.

Hello,

Now things at the South Pole station have finally gone underway. The weather has cleared up some so that we could be able to get planes in. We received 30 people yesterday with about that many winterovers leaving the station. Our population will double by the start of next week with about 210 people, a lot different from the 90 or so for the week and a half I've been here.

Also, I have started a swing shift, so my hours will be weird for a while and it maybe harder for me to contact you. I'll take all the changes as they come, but things will get better for me once I get settled in with everybody.

Cheers,
Phillip

You want some weather? You got it!

Well, I've been here almost one week and nothing exciting has happened too much weather wise. That was until when I saw the numerical models from 1200Z 30 October. It looks like that I'll be experiencing the first major system since I got here. For right now, we'll have modest warm air advection that will bring some clouds on 1200Z 2 November. This trend will continue and there will be a good chance of precipitation for 0000-1200Z for 3 and 4 November.

Towards the end of the run, the weather maybe a problem for our LC-130s (Hercs for short) to land. The Hercs can carry a lot of our staff and cargo (which also holds my other bag with clean clothes and shoes >_<). So if the visibility drops below 1 mile, the LC-130s can't land and they have to turn back to McMurdo.

For the uninformed, the time 1200Z is in Greenwich Mean Time, which we meteorologists live and die by that time. Also at the Pole, we go by New Zealand Daylight Savings Time, meaning our time is 13 hours ahead of GMT and nearly a whole day ahead of the United States. So this makes it troublesome to contact home or catch up on sports. One more bit of info is that the winds on the meteorgrams are grid wind, meaning a wind from the north is aligned at the Prime Meridian, a south wind from 180 degrees and a west wind at 90 West Longitude. NZSP is our station identifier.

I hope that you enjoy your weather fix for now. It gets a little hard to keep up with numerical weather model updates since we are allowed only 9 hours a day to communicate outside our internal sites.

Until next time.

It's been this long since the last post...? Made it.

Okay,

Sorry for the wait, but I did reach the South Pole at 1:00pm local time (Sunday night for most of you reading this.). So far, it has been two days and I'm adjusting to life at the bottom of the world okay.

The temps so far are around -50C/-60F, so I don't want to hear from anyone how they're cold. The extreme cold weather (ECW) gear does help a lot, so I don't get frostbite or any other things like that. It's just the altitude and dry air that giving me some problems, but I'll probably be over them in a week or two.

I'll be sure to get some more pictures at the South Pole eventually, but for now enjoy the view of McMurdo Station and a leopard seal on the ice (Yes, I'm positive that's not a smudge on the picture).

Late,
Phillip

Another leg down, now at the Great White South.

Okay,

Again, not as much time to post. I arrived at McMurdo Station in Antarctica two days ago and this is about the most settled in that I have been since I left home. The flight to the South Pole has been delayed for me, so I won't leave until Saturday at the earliest. I got into the cockpit of the C-17, which was a lot of fun and the other shot was McMurdo at dusk during the last sunset until February.

A long trip, but here I am....almost.

Hello,

It's has been kinda crazy for me over the past couple of days. I left Denver on Thursday afternoon, switched planes at L.A., then a 12 hour flight to Auckland and another trip to Christchurch. The last two cities are in New Zealand. The past two days was mainly getting around the city, awaiting the C-17 to take us to McMurdo Station. That will happen Monday, weather pending.

On that note, I'm posting this close to 10:00 pm on Sunday, which means that it's near 3:00 am back in Colorado, so I'll try to be kind for future updates to not to post at bizarre times of the day.

I did go hiking today and have some shots of the beauty of New Zealand. I hope you enjoy them (once I get the image posting figured out >_>.) If all goes well, in 24 hours I should be at McMurdo Station.

Cheers,
Phillip

First Post

Hello loyal web lurkers,

I finally decided to start writing a blog for the first time. I'm not too much of a journal writer and I might not have the most exciting life now, but things are going to change in the coming weeks as I have recently accepted a contract job to do weather observations for Raytheon at the South Pole. Sounds cool (okay, bad pun...:P), but I thought it would be better if I were to show you my tale over the coming months. I hope to hear from you and let me know what you think.

Phillip