McMurdo Station Battered By Gales

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30783, 22 June 1965, Page 14

McMurdo Station Battered By Gales

Three storms battered McMurdo station last week Winds were up to 80 knots and visibility was reduced to zero. The temperature varied between zero and minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit. In a message received at the United States Navy base at Christchurch airport yesterday it was reported that the station was not damaged and that operations had returned to about normal. During the storms snow was piled high throughout the station. The last storm isolated a section at the site of the nuclear power nlant for more than 20 hours. There were sufficient men at the section to allow turns to be taken for rest and the continued maintenance' of the plant.

At the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station men were able to work outside again for the first time in days. Ma*y tons of accumulated snow was moved out of the main tunnel. Men were also reported busy on remodelling and redecorating the “Club 90 South” in readiness for the mid-winter party this evening.

For most of last week there were clear skies although visibility was at times reduced by ice crystals (something like fog but where ice particles are held in the atmosphere). On June 10 the station experienced something of a heatwave when the temnerature rose to minu« 3-1 decrees Fahrenheit. The p’-eraee low temnerature atl the South Pole ’»st week was' minus R 3 degrees F A* Eights st’tion. >n Ells-: worth Land, the weather was I cold but calm during the last

two weeks. A new low temperature of minus 59 degrees F. was recorded in the first week of June.

Yesterday mid-winter greetlings were received at Christchurch and American stations in the Antarctic from the commander of the U.S. Navy Support Force (Rear-admiral F. E. Bakutis) and Dr. T. O. Jones, the head of the United States Antarctic programmes office of the National Science Foundation.