Last night we were aboard a cruise ship enjoying a BBQ is pleasant slightly chilly conditions. Just at the end when everyone was going to the presentation room to listen to Alastair and Katie’s science talk it suddenly turned very warm. Just as Alastair was doing his last slide the captain came in and said they were dragging anchor and we needed to be taken ashore straight away so he could get out of KEC. It was blowing quite a bit but everything happened without a hitch. The screenshot above shows the temperature graph over the last 24 hours showing our massive jump to 22C it is the same temperature inside as out and on my morning run I was sweating in board shorts and a t-shirt!

So how is this Foehn wind created?

It is a very dry down slope contour hugging wind occuring in the lee of a mountain range creating a large rise in temperature.

From wikipedia…
It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of its moisture on windward slopes (see orographic lift). As a consequence of the different adiabatic lapse rates of moist and dry air, the air on the leeward slopes becomes warmer than equivalent elevations on the windward slopes. Winds of this type are called “snow-eaters” for their ability to make snow melt or sublimate rapidly. This snow-removing ability is caused not only by warmer temperatures, but also the low relative humidity of the air mass having been stripped of moisture by orographic precipitation coming over the mountain(s).

From coolantarctica.com
As the warm (relatively to the ice and rock) wind blows across the land, it causes snow and ice to sublime. That is to turn directly from a solid to a gas without passing through a liquid phase, so causing the cloud layer that can be seen – the same thing may happen when you open the door to your freezer and “smoke” comes out. The overall effect as seen from a distance is that the land is covered by a very large duvet. The gross contours can be seen through the cloud layer, but all of the finer detail is obscured.

Received from an “Antarctic met man”:
The Föhn effect is dominated by “blocking”. Wind, approaching a ridge, will either go up and over the ridge (normal) or come to a stop and then flow round the sides. South Georgia often experiences this latter.

Which of the two (up and over or round the sides) depends on the temperature gradient (stability), and wind speed, (Web search Froude number for more technical description). If it’s stable, the air at the ground is cold and “heavy” and wont flow up and over the top, it goes round the side. BUT, the air at the top of the ridge and just above the ridge, flows over and then down. Air aloft is already warm (because its stable, cold at the bottom), it then descends and gets even warmer and dryer …a Föhn. South Georgia has these often. If the air is just between the flow round the sides (Froude > 1) of up and over (Froude < 1 ) you get waves, which make the lenticular clouds. I suspect we will be hearing the ice cliffs on the local glaciers collapsing and have an increase in bergy bits as a result of this large increase in temperature. Looking out my window now there are lots of beautiful lenticulars clouds as well as foehn wind clouds. Northanger the yacht that left yesterday evening came back in late last night and anchored in the cove as the conditions with the Foehn wind were not pleasant.

Mum and Dad asked for a picture of my view from my window. So here you are….

Pat has lived and worked in South Georgia at Grytviken for 18 years with his wife Sarah. They live in Carse House the new schedule is 8 months on station 4 months away. When they first moved here they lived with the military in the barracks and ate in the mess. As the government officer Pat greets all the visitors to South Georgia – private and charter yachts, cruise ships and fishing vessels. His duties include those of Harbour Master, Customs and Immigration Officer, Fisheries Officer and Tourism manager. He is guaranteed to always have a smile on his face and is a great person to have around. If you have a question about South Georgia he can answer it or will know someone with the answer.

His christmas poem that he read on christmas eve is below!

T’was the night before Christmas in Everson House
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
and certainly not an earwig or rat:
biosecurity makes sure of that.
The stockings weren’t hung by the mantel with care,
they were still in a heap in the laundry, where
their owner was grinning in anticipation
not of plum pudding, but washing machine vibration.

From the bar came the sounds of glasses a-clinking
and laughter and chatter while all were a-drinking.
When out from the kitchen came the clatter of plates
and ‘Time Gentlemen Please’ from the person on lates.
Timely prevention of next day’s sore heads
as everyone left and went off to their beds.
Except one, who decided to stay at her post
fortified maybe by whisky and toast
so she cut a bread slice and in the toaster popped it
went off for a refill and promptly forgot it.
Luckily nobody came to much harm
for the dining room has an efficient alarm.
While we stood by the comms tower, cursing black bread,
A mysterious aircraft passed low overhead
with jingling bells and antlers and hooves
that splattered and clattered on the Grytviken roofs
T’was the morning of Christmas on Wanderer III
And the deck was as wet as it was in the sea
for incontinent reindeer had stood there all night
when the chimney flue exit had got rather tight
for Saint Nicholas making his evening delivery
who had sat by the woodstove, all wet, cold and shivery
He had slipped down the chimney after not many tries
but, oh dear, found a tray of Ashley’s mince pies
which he polished off quickly, washed down with spiced rum
which expanded his already rather large tum.
So his only exit was by the front door,
delayed by the captain – “Go on, just one more!”

On the day after Christmas, the Museum shop
needs a jolly good sweep, and the loos need a mop.
The shopkeeper’s busy re-stocking the shelves
for the next round of cruise ships, with no help from the elves,
who, next door in the villa, are baking more biscuits
(the tin’s looking empty so better not risk it)
and drinking some tea, and then a few beers.

What a good idea.
Merry Christmas
Cheers

Some translations
Everson House – Our accomodation building
Earwig – biggest biosecurity concern should they come in from the Falklands
Washing machine vibration – when someone puts their laundry on the whole building shakes like we are having an earthquake!
Lates – evening shift you do once a week from 7pm to 1am basically making sure the base is all secure for the night and people are capable of looking after themselves or are back from Grytviken
Wanderer III – the ‘resident’ yacht – Thies and Kikki have been here for two winters and three summers so far based over at Grytviken

This morning I woke up at 3:50am and looked out the window to see a beautiful sky over Mount Hodges. It also had a light dusting of snow from overnight.

Today Tommy, Katie and I did a 10km + circuit from base up to Gull Lake and then to Pinnacle Pass. It is quite a steep slope and there are still a few small snow banks. From Pinnacle Pass you can see down Cumberland Bay west to the glacier which has retreated dramatically over the last 15 years. The valley that you then descend into from Pinnacle Pass is Spaghnum Valley. We didn’t descent the whole way instead we traveresed around the base of an unnamed mountain to the bottom of Echo Pass as Tommy had seen a waterfall when we last hiked to Echo that he wanted to stop at. Unfortunately with no more snow melting the waterfall has dried up. So instead we finished the circuit back to base by coming back into Junction Valley from Echo Pass. For only a short period it got a little chilly otherwise it was a stunning sunny South Georgia day.

There has been a blond male juvenile fur seal along the track the last few days. These two have climbed quite high in the tussock above the track which is a little disconcerting as we are used to looking for them along the sides of the track especially the water side not up high on the other side of the track.

After getting back to base it was time for a drink on the veranda watching the King penguins and then I moved ‘house’ as there was a room available on the water side of base so I have taken ownership of that for the rest of my time here. A little more sorting to do and I will be fully moved in with a beautiful view from my window across Cumberland Bay East to the Greene and Barff Peninsulas.

Happy New Year I hope it is a great one for all my family and friends.

A tasty dinner was cooked by the folks from the museum and the sunset with the lenticular clouds was beautiful especially with all the king penguins on the beach. Tomorrow Alastair and I will start the new year with some science on the beaches of Maiviken. Have a safe New Years Eve.

Just before christmas we took Pat and Sarah off for their pre christmas holidays for a week on the Barff peninsula which is just across Cumberland Bay. We take the jet boat and a RIB – the RIB is for landing on the beach this picture was taken by Pat Lurcock.

Todays meal was all freshies due to the kindness of the FRAM the cruise ship which gave us lots of fresh goods on christmas eve. With the number of eggs I was able to make quiche and a salad bar! Even the boys ate it.

I spent many hours with Rob, Alastair and Jon over at Myviken tramping through the tussock to get a gps tag back from a female who has been collecting data since the beginning of december.

picture by Dr Sam

Today was still a holiday on base as it was bank holiday2! Much more relaxing here than Rothera that is for sure. So we all got up to different things…

Alastair still had to go see the seals at Myviken as there is no such thing as a bank holiday for seal science. But he was rewarded by seeing a south georgia pipit which for a keen birder such as Alastair this was a momentous occasion. He did an all stations radio call about the sighting of the said bird which caused quite a stir over the VHF radio waves. This is a picture I poached off the internet…

What is so special you ask? Why do people spend 10’s of thousands of dollars to come south to see one? Below is from Wikipedia

The South Georgia Pipit (Anthus antarcticus) is a sparrow sized bird, only found on the South Georgia archipelago. It is the Antarctic’s only song bird, and South Georgia’s only passerine, and one of the few non-seabirds of the region. It builds nests from dried grass, and lays four eggs a year. It lives off insects and spiders, and beach debris. It has been threatened by the human introduction to the islands of rats, and also by environmental damage caused by humans themselves.

The rat eradication project that South Georgia Heritage Trust is embarking on will hopefully mean that they are seen around KEP more frequently. Check out http://www.sght.org/projects.htm for more info on this project.

Meanwhile five of us went over to Glacier Col as none of the group with the exception of myself had been to the dying glacier. It was a stunning day for it and we had a leisurely time stopping for a quick swim in the meltwater lake at the bottom of the glacier.

picture by Dr Sam

While we were walking up there two aircrafts flew over KEP which is a very rare thing indeed. The military were basically practising by sending out their planes from the Falklands. Although they can’t land they can air drop items which is an important thing to be able to do in the case of a major incident involving a cruise ship or fishing boat.

These are a few of the presents people made for Secret Santa. There are a talented bunch of people here. The one on the top left was drawn by Sam the Dr and the bottom one was my present from Tommy of one of the workboats which is now up on the shore near the hydro power station. I mentioned a few weeks ago when I was on a walk with him that I liked it.

Today I didn’t get up to anything adventurous of amazing instead I used the day to do some chores like my laundry, clean my room, make a picture frame for a birthday someone has in January. I also read a few chapters in the book OF DOGS AND MEN which is about the BAS sledge dogs that left in 1994. I also sewed up the bottoms of my walking trousers from the 3320 climb!

Being the only fully trained assitant on base for Alastair we went over to Maiviken today to put GPS tags on two female seals. The seals have pups so they go off to sea for 4 days foraging and then return to the beaches.

Alastair uses a VHF aerial to identify what area of the beach the tagged seal is and then retrieves the tags and downloads the data. This data is very helpful as it tells how far they swim and in what direction and also how deep they dive to feed. This means he is then able to tell the fisheries managers (government officers) if there is a particular area they are fishing in and how much krill there is in that area. The government can then make a decision based on this information about where to close for fishing. In all seriousness the old predator scientist was asked by a tourist what sky TV channels he could get using the aerial!

It has to be dry to put a tag on a seal so we were lucky as just after we had done the second one the skies opened with a mix of hail and rain. Alastair had some photos to take at the beaches but he was done with me so the Dr. Sam and I hurried on home stopping at the museum for a cup of tea and biscuits before the next cruise ship rush.

Pictures by Sam