The beginning of this week delivered our biggest storm to date for the 2021 winter season here at Davis. This was our 9th blizzard of the year, which puts us slightly above average for total blizzards expected over a winter at Davis. Our strongest wind gust was 92 knots/170 km hour on the Monday, with a wind run of 2013 km over 24 hours. Safe to say the living and sleeping quarters had a bit of building shake and noise happening!
We are on track for October to be the windiest October in recorded history at Davis. We have had 14 days of strong wind (22 knots/39 km) so far and expect to surpass the previous record of 16 days this weekend, so we'll just sneak it in. We have also had 10 days of gale force winds (34 knots/63 km) so far this month and also expect to equal that record this weekend.
Snowfall is harder to record as one can't tell what has fallen into the gauge and what has blown in, but roughly speaking we received more snow in 12 hours of blizzard than we received in the two months previously. Practically speaking, it means there's big snowdrifts to wade through and a good few days of digging and snow clearing to get station back to fully operational. Danny has been out pushing snow into piles so that we can get our roadways back, and Jose and Paul are out on the skiway with the groomer and dragbeam to get that back to flight ready status. We are finally looking like getting those two KBA planes on Friday afternoon. Summer season commences!