Condition 1

Today (tonight) I'm experiencing Condition 1 weather for the first time in the town. As a matter of fact, the weather we're seeing tonight is being considered some of the worse the base has seen in about 10 years. I finally found clarification on the weather rating system for McMurdo Station which is as follows:


Condition One
Weather conditions when visibility is less than 100 ft., or wind speed is greater than 55 knots (more than 60 mph), or wind chill is greater than -100°F (-38°C).

Condition Two
Weather conditions when visibility is less than ¼ mile, or wind speed is between 48 and 55 knots (about 55 mph to 65 mph), or wind chill factor is between -75°F and -100°F (or between -24°C and -38°C).

Condition Three
Weather conditions, from anything better than a Condition Two, up to a beautiful sunny day.


So yeah, the weather is pretty shitty right now. During condition 2 weather, all recreational travel is prohibited while everyone that has to drive as part of their job has to check in with the firehouse. Condition 1, no one is allowed outside period until the weather gets better which means some people may be spending the night where ever they're at...regardless if that's where they want to be. Also, during condition 1 weather, the SAR team is on stand-by to go "rescue" people stranded outside or in normally non-occupied buildings or set up rope systems down on the ice runway from certain buildings (i.e. the firehouse) to the bathrooms. Tonight they were pretty busy rescuing the stranded and getting them back to their dorms. All in all, it's been pretty interesting the past few hours. Tonight, I'm the sole person on Tanker 3 while everyone else is on the engine. Not to my suprise, they ended up getting a call for an odor of something burning in one of the bars on base. Pissed that I wasn't dispatched, I retreated back to my computer to waste time on facebook and ebay. Just another day here at the firehouse...