Safe Return, Reflecting on the Ice, New materials

Here's a riddle that I'm trying to figure out right now: if I left Christchurch, NZ at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 19 and arrived in Washington, D.C. at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, January 19, how long did it take me to get here? How many breakfasts have I eaten? How many dinners? Was I supposed to sleep 8 hours somewhere in there? I guess the answer is that it's 2:30 am Eastern Standard Time, no matter what time my biological clock is telling me it is. I should go to sleep! As those of you who read Capital Weather Gang regularly might remember, for me, Sleeping Through Sunlight is Not a Success, especially when it never gets dark during Antarctic summer! At least it will be dark when I finally fall asleep tonight, even if at 3 in the morning.

It is a strange thing to be carried in flying machines from the eastern United States, to the bottom of the world and back again. After this trip, I am more impressed with the many aircraft we have seen and the pilots that fly them than ever before -- and perhaps more trusting, too. As I gazed out of my window seat on my third and final flight today (or yesterday?), I reflected on just how many sunsets and clouds I have seen from an airplane window over the past 3+ weeks ... too many to count, but all beautiful and stilling in their own way.

Since I left Antarctica, I have been full of an overwhelming sense of gratitude for having had the chance to go on this trip. Thanks again to National Science Foundation and Raytheon Polar Services, to the team of journalists who were great company and whom I learned a lot from, to Dan and Tim for answering my million-and-one Antarctic meteorology questions, to NEEF for supporting this trip and offering many outlets for the information, and to family, friends, and kind strangers who helped to make it happen! We did it -- we went to the South Pole, and learned a LOT in the process!

New materials:

--Check out my video of Happy Camp (field and safety training our second day in Antarctica) snippets posted yesterday on Capital Weather Gang
--Earth Gauge Kids: Antarctica (January theme, geared toward kids in grades 5-8)
--Earth Gauge in Antarctica resources distributed so far from myself and the team
--Dan has a new video up on his Wild Wild Weather blog