Weather

Antarctica is the world’s coldest, driest and windiest continent. This makes photography a challenge, and therefore the majority of photographs are taken in good conditions. Nevertheless, we offer here illustrations of a range of weather conditions, ranging from the benign to the hostile.

Weather
A fine summer day at Rothera Field Station, with Mt Liotard rising majestically above Ryder Bay. These conditions are associated with anticyclones. Temperatures hover around freezing in summertime.
Weather
A fine summer day at our field camp at Ablation Lake next to George VI Ice Shelf, 320 km south of Rothera. Anticyclonic conditions were more common here than at the coastal location of Rothera. Also, being so much further south, temperatures here are several degrees lower than at Rothera.
Weather
An aerial view of Marguerite Bay en route from Rothera to George VI Ice Shelf. Low cloud is a common feature of these coastal areas, where moist air condenses close to extensive ice cover.
Weather
Cirrus cloud with sun halo over Laubeuf Fjord and Arrowsmith Peninsula from Rothera. This high cloud suggests the presence of an approaching depression.
Weather
Heavy lowering strato-cumulus clouds herald the arrival of unsettled conditions with light snowfall. This is another view across Laubeuf Fjord.
Weather
High winds whipping up snow forming whirlwinds (“snow devils”) that rush across Ablation Lake, battering our tents.
Weather
At no time during our stay at Ablation Lake did we experience full blizzard conditions, so this photograph is from James Ross Island in the northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula in March 2012. This is the view after a night of blizzards that built large drifts between our tents. Such conditions make fieldwork inefficient at best, and at worst dangerous.
Weather
Another picture borrowed from elsewhere, this time from the McMurdo Ice Shelf in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica, taken in December 2010. It shows full blizzard and whiteout conditions, when the ground is indistinguishable from air. Here, a scientist is carrying equipment from a tracked vehicle to our cabin.
Weather
Warmer, moister conditions at Rothera in mid summer mean fewer sunny days. Instead a blanket of stratus cloud, albeit with small breaks, covers the mountains surrounding Rothera station.
Weather
A fine evening near sunset in early summer at Rothera, with intermediate-level clouds. The transition to night-time early in the season allows temperatures to fall and the sea to refreeze, a process that does not happen very much in high-summer.
  
Photos Michael Hambrey, November and December 2012.