ANTARCTIC WEATHER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20312, 20 July 1929, Page 11

ANTARCTIC WEATHER.

PARTY FEELING THE COLD. WINDS ADD TO DISCOMFORT. United Service. HEW YOKK., July 18. rßy Mr. Kusscll Owen. Copyrighted 1028 • by llio New York Times Company ami the St. Louis Post Diaputeh. All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to the New Vork limes. | BAY OK WHALES. July 17 In tho last fortnight tho weather has been tho coldest wo have had. In fact, on the average, July up to the present has been tho coldest month over reported from the Antarctic regions. Tho temperature is 50 degrees below zero, as compared with the temperature recorded by Amundsen' one August, namely, 14 degrees below zero. On 11 out of the first 13 days this month the temperature has averaged 60 degrees below, and one day it touched 70 degrees—and that is cold. When it is calm at 70 degrees there is no discomfort. inside or out for a short time if one is warmly clad, for, with our fur clothing only the exposod parts on our faces suffer, and when the nose is covered by the hand it soon becomes warm again. The only trouble is that while warm irig tho nose tho hand freezes. Ono feels suddenly a bito on tho finger tip as if it had been seized by a pair ot tiny pincers. When tho wind blows at all at low temperatures then it is almost impossible to face it for more than a few minutes at a time. To-day, for instance, it is 50 degrees below, a temperature to which we have become accustomed while walking, but there is a ten-mile-an-hour wind and that wind whips around the face and causes intense pain. The nose continually suffers and the cheeks are nipped as if by fire. Cold without wind can bo withstood, but cold with wind is impossible. Extreme cold does strange things. It is odd to stand outside and hear one's breath as it freezes. When it was 70 degrees below, tho Barrier snow contracted sharply and all about us could be heard cracks and snaps where the snow crystals let go under the contraction. It was weird, as if tho houses were built on an unstable element that was moving beneath our feet. So small are those cracks that, wo havo never seen any of them, except one, just north of tho camp. The bay ice booms liko distant guns at times when large cracks apparently run across it. The guy wires on tho antenna posts becomo as taut as harp strings and hum when tho slightest winds hit them. It has a curious effect on our lights and the candles used under the meteorological balloons must be warmed before they will burn outside for more than a few minutes. Incidentally what is believed to be a record observation in cold temperatures was made when tho balloon was sent up on t7ie day when it was 70 degrees below zero. The kerosene lanterns when taken outside freezo up, tho mixture of kerosene and gasoline becoming as hard as ice. Tho rubber insulation on the wires becomes so brittle that it breaks at tho slightest touch and the porous rubber crumbles. Yes, it is cold, but our coldest weather is ahead of us. In two months, however, tho sun will begin to warm up this frozen land. The sun first appears on August 2, and everyone is looking forward to seeing that comfortable old globo loom above the horizon. The light in tho north grows a little stronger every day.