Day 13 - May 18 2006

Today was the most extreme weather we have seen yet. Although temperatures aren't so bad at about -6 C, the visibility is down to about 30 yards, with winds and blowing snow out of the north-northwest at 23-30 mph. We are in a deep low pressure system centered over Svalbard to the east and constantly fighting the threat of becoming drifted in. We hope it will move out tomorrow. Going outside, we are immediately up to our waist in snow drifts. Our Iridium system antennas are bent over at about 45 degrees and our bandwidth is down to about half of normal (~8 kB/s). All work has ceased. We are extremely fortunate that we got the primary diesel generator repair in the nick of time. All are well and warm and hunkered down in the weatherport with the essentials: food, shelter and heat, while fighting off boredom with movies and the Internet system.


Picture taken from weatherport door during near whiteout conditions

This evening the winds shifted more towards the north and the pressure started to rise. This is good news as it means that the low pressure system is moving south and clearing out. We hope tomorrow will be more productive.