Record-breaking weather: Washington D.C. and Mount Washington

While this post will not be about Antarctica, it is about the reasons I haven't written about Antarctica in many days. They both have to do with weather records. First, there is somewhere close to TWO FEET of snow sitting outside of my window in Washington, D.C. right now. After two smaller snowstorms last week, the so-called Snowmageddon storm yesterday and today brought record-breaking accumulations to the region. Since I write for Capital Weather Gang, The Washington Post's weather blog, things have been a little, well, nuts this week. In an exciting way though! Luckily, there was a lot of hype about this storm, so many people were prepared and stayed safe. Unfortunately, there were also many accidents and power outages. The city will no doubt be digging out for days. This is our second double-digit snowstorm in the past 7 weeks, which is a lot for this city.

Next, other alumni of the Mount Washington Observatory and I found out last week that the mountain's world record wind speed was replaced (how on Earth can you replace something as special and long-lived as that, you wonder? Well, in our hearts it can't be replaced. But read on to find out how it can be with science...). Fourteen years ago -- yes, as in over a decade ago -- a very strong typhoon (same as a hurricane in the Atlantic) passed over Australia, and a ground wind speed of 253 mph was recorded by an automatic weather station on Barrows Island. Meteorologists who observed this knew that it could be a record-breaker, but the paperwork went unnoticed by the World Meteorological Organization until a few years ago. Only last week did they confirm that this, indeed, beat Mount Washington's 231 mph record recorded back in 1934 and that the instrument that recorded it was valid. Although we were skeptical at first, Andrew Freedman and I said farewell to the world record wind on Capital Weather in the proper way.

So, no new Antarctica materials. However, I'll have something posted again soon. Thanks for your patience!

*Whew, what a winter.*

Video: "Best of" Adélie Penguins

Back after popular demand ... the Adélies! Featured on their home "stage" of sea ice near Cape Royds colony, Ross Island, Antarctica.



(Turn up the sound near the end to hear thousands of penguins chatting with each other at the colony. Oh, and you can ignore the clicks of the "penguin paparazzi" - aka, my fellow journalists in red parkas with cameras in their hands.)

Adélie penguins are quite social creatures (you may have noticed they are always wearing tuxedos). They have no natural land predators, so they get quite curious about humans. It is illegal for people to approach, touch, harm or remove any wildlife from Antarctica, but that did not stop the stars themselves from coming up close to check us out!

Happy the Cactus: Why my desert mascot did not survive in Antarctica

Arizona is a desert. Antarctica is the world's largest desert. So why wasn't Happy the saguaro cactus, my desert mascot, able to survive in Antarctica?


(Disclaimer: For those of you worried about invasive species, as the U.S. Antarctic Program is -- and rightfully should be -- don't worry, Happy was not real.)

The saguaro (pronounced sah-WAR-o) cactus is the largest cactus species in the Unites States, and it is endemic to the Sonoran desert of the Southwest U.S. and northern Mexico, living nowhere else in the world. Like other desert plants, it is very well-adapted to dry conditions. Saguaros live to be very old, and only begin growing 'arms' after they are 50 or so. They flower once per year in May or June. Here is my first picture of Happy, with a younger saguaro in my father's front yard outside of Phoenix.

Though it is covered with a 1 to 2 mile-thick ice sheet, Antarctica is technically a desert. Ecologically speaking, a desert receives an average of less than 10 inches of precipitation per year. While McMurdo Sound on the Antarctic coast receive 6 or 7 inches of snowfall each year, interior parts receive far less. The South Pole, for example, gets less than 2 inches of measurable snowfall annually. Most of the time, it is just too cold to snow; any ice/snow crystals that fall end up sublimating, or changing directly to water vapor, before hitting the ground. The Pole also experiences a lot of blowing snow, which is very difficult to measure since it does not fall straight down.

So, as far as precipitation goes, Antarctica is definitely a desert. However, there is a major (and obvious) temperature difference between Antarctica and the deserts we are more familiar with, like Arizona. Antarctica is considered a cold (or polar) desert and can reach -120F; Arizona is a hot desert and can reach +120F. This, my friends, is why Happy did not survive more than 24 hours once reaching Antarctica. While Happy was used to dry climates, he was not used to sub-zero temperatures.

There are no flowering plants in Antarctica, with the exception of two species found the Antarctic Peninsula, the warmest part of the continent, close to South America. However, I brought him even further south. Perhaps I should have gone to the Peninsula instead?

Here are some other photos of our journey together:

Getting ready to fly over the Pacific.

At the top of the Christchurch Gondola in New Zealand, overlooking Lyttleton Harbor. Shackleton and Scott sailed out of this port during their Antarctic expeditions in the early 1900s.

On the C-17 flight from Christchurch to McMurdo Station. This was the last photo I took of him before he disappeared.

Unfortunately, Happy went missing within a day of us reaching the ice. I guess he simply could not survive the cold. I was happy to have him accompany me on my journey there. I quickly learned that you can take a cactus out of the (hot) desert, but you can't transplant him to a polar desert and expect him to last.

Ironically, I am not the only one who has thought about a saguaro cactus while in Antarctica. Here is a painted saguaro I stumbled upon during my last morning at McMurdo.

Farewell, Happy!

(P.S. - If you are reading this from McMurdo or South Pole Stations, please keep your eyes out for Happy -- I seriously lost him! He would most likely be huddled under blankets or in the pockets of Big Red, trying to keep warm.)