Today was a typical example of the extraordinary surprise that awaits you, when overwintering in Antarctica.

I woke up, feeling like I slept only a couple of hours, with a stonking headache, as if I had drunk half an american bar (despite not having had anything to drink at all the night before, alcohol wise).

I ate lunch. I feel strange to explain it this way… but it took possibly 30 minutes for my mind to ‘start up’, like an engine firing up in the cold, and for me to ‘wake up’. At least that was how it felt.

I looked at my overnight research sleep data on myself a few nights ago – and found my Oxygen level to have dipped below 83% during the night, for a few hours. Unlucky for me, I still need to use my brain for the next decades. God only knows what will be left of it, by the end of this trip.

Its damn hot

Over the course of the day, the temperature rose steadily, to just -26 C.

As you might recall we saw a similar change just 6 weeks or so ago. So far, we have had:

  • the coldest temperature recorded in the past year or two at Concordia (-79 C)
  • the lowest pressure recorded in the past year (below 621hPa)
  • the highest temperatures recorded for this time of the year – not just once, but now twice.

I haven’t had much use out of my Hawaiian Shirt, since arriving. But out it came and out I went in it, accompanied by my trademark ‘Crocs and Socks’ and beard.

It seems we too are enjoying a ‘warm’ summer’s day, despite being at the height of the Antarctic winter in the Southern Hemisphere, days before midwinter.

Just for the day, I was able to forget where I was, which in the long polar night, is a gift from Heaven – a feeling of where we came from – a time before Concordia. Now only a distant memory.

News: Global Warming may have hit Antarctica… Hard.

Song of the Day: I thought something uplifting … so… some of the best scenes from the film Good Morning Vietnam – Enjoy!

and lastly, to remind us of the world we live in: