Monday 6th January 2014

Today was overcast with light winds. I did ARPANSA and put on some washing, printed the papers as Richard was still away and spent most of the day writing and actioning emails. I got the yearly weather data from Luc and converted it to imperial units and compared it to the data from 1960 and the results are 2013 is much warmer and windier than Mawson was in 1960.

I read through the JHA and rescue plan and then checked out preparations for cleaning the fuel tanks on the upper fuel farm. I didn’t seem to do a lot or achieve much today but I was busy all day doing it. After dinner I made a conscious decision to try and catch up on my blog that I have neglected for quite a while now.

The following table gives a summary of the meteorological data at Mawson for 1960 & 2013. For historical interest the units, then in use, of degrees Fahrenheit (deg F) and miles per hour (mph) have been retained.

                                                  Jan          Feb          Mar          Apr          May          Jun          Jul          Aug          Sep          Oct          Nov          Dec          Yr

Mean Max. (deg F)    +35.8      +31.5     +15.5        +5.6          +4.0         ‑3.1        ‑1.8        +2.7         +4.4       +12.8      +27.5      +34.3     +14.1

                                                                                   +18.1        +10.4       +10.4      +9.8        +6.2       +5.1         +15.2    +18.1      +29.2      +35.0     +17.7

Mean Min. (deg F)     +27.2     +20.5      +4.0           ‑1.5          ‑5.1         ‑11.3      ‑12.2     ‑6.5          ‑5.7       +1.9        +15.6      +14.2      +4.3

                                                                                    +5.9           +0.8         +0.8         -2.9         -4.7         -5.6          +3.2       +8.9        +18.3      +26.2      +7.1

Highest Max (deg F)  +42.1     +43.3      +25.1        +16.0       +15.8     +14.0     + 18.3    +16.3       +16.1    +29.8     +34.4      +40.9     +43.3

                                                                                    +30.7       +21.2       +21.2      +21.9     +20.1     +21.7       +24.2    +27.8     +40.1      +40.4     +40.4

Lowest Min (deg F)   +21.3      +5.0         ‑6.2           ‑12.0        ‑15.9      ‑21.1     ‑26.6      ‑21.2       ‑12.4    ‑11.0       +7.5        +14.9     ‑26.6

                                                                                    -7.9           -12.8         -12.8       -18.4     -19.4       -27.2       -20.7       -3.6        +3.7        +16.7     -27.2

Mean Wind speed)     17.3      20.5        19.4           24.1         18.7          18.7       17.0        24.7         22.7      20.2       21.7          23.5       20.7 

                                           29.3           29.7          29.7         27.1       31.1         25.9         30.7      32.3      24.3          21.1

The beautiful snow petrol has been seen 600 km inland and can easily fly in 60 knot winds