The best way to describe this week? Weather extremes. Casey has gone from being very windy with snow, to one of the most beautiful 36 hours that we have seen, and then back into full blizzard conditions. The peak winds about mid-afternoon Tuesday were up to 94 knots or 174 kph which is similar to a Category 3 cyclone.
In between the weather events there has been much activity on station, continuing good work on vehicle maintenance and repair, and infrastructure management and upgrades.
The Operation/Communications and Bureau of Meteorology teams have been busy as well, providing communications and weather forecasting and observation support for work groups, field parties and aircraft movements within Antarctica.
With the celebration of three birthdays in five days, a theme dinner, and marking the 400th day in Antarctica for two of our team members, the chefs have continued to impress.
The science projects have continued making progress. The seabird team completed their work on Odbert Island with its 25,000-strong Adélie penguin colony, finding a great location and establishing a camera to observe the colony remotely.
The Law Dome science team has finally been able to leave station for their traverse to camp, to join their colleagues and commence their ice core drilling project.
The station population took the sunny Sunday to enjoy the surrounds, with most people out and about from the ski loop, to Shirley Island and an afternoon’s trip to Jack’s Hut.