Greetings,
Weather certainly has been a challenge for me ever since I moved to swing shift. It has been up to me to observe and forecast the weather at the South Pole so that we could make our evening flights.
On Monday, fog rolled in to the Pole and we had a number of distinguished visitors (DVs-reporters) who needed to get back to McMurdo Station. I needed a minimum of 1 mile visibility in order for the plane to arrive safely. The plane circled around about 20 miles away for about an hour before it tried to land. I did an observation that had the one mile visibility. However, 5 minutes later, the visibility dropped to a 1/2 a mile. I was getting nervous that the Air Guard would be unhappy with me. They tried twice to land in the low clouds and the fog, but they missed the approach. They turned around and headed back to McMurdo so they wouldn't run out of fuel. Of course, 15 minutes after they turned around, the visibility was 3 miles and better conditions to land the plane.
Overall, the reporters spent the night at the South Pole, which most of them were not terribly disappointed about it. We all have our 'what if' moments once in a while. This would have been one of those times.
On one of our clearer days, there were some awesome halo shots. This happens when ice crystals race across the sky and when they get hit by the sun's rays at the right angles, we get to see some of these halos that are pictured here.
I hope you enjoy my story and pictures today. Until next time....
