Oct 22, 2002 Condition 1 on the sea-ice. Here in McMurdo they rate the weather according to how safe it is for people to be working outdoors. Sunny clear days, regardless of temperature, are referred to as condition 3. When the wind picks up and snow starts to blow around it becomes condition 2 which means that certain activities are restricted, but it is still safe to open the door and walk across town. Condition 1 occurs during blizzards or white-outs when no-one is allowed outdoors because it sometimes becomes impossible to see your hand at the end of your arm. Today we got our first glimpse of condition 1 weather.

It stayed condition 2 in town most of the day so we were able to move about and get work done, but no one was allowed on the sea-ice and our diving was put on hold. Finally at the end of the day the winds relented and Oliver and Stacy were able to go out and do a cold and windy dive at a sampling site referred to as the transition. The transition is where the main road through town makes its way onto the sea ice and out to the ice-runway where passengers and cargo arrive in McMurdo. Sea- ice often cracks where it meets the shore due to the action of the tides, so the area where the road transitions from land to ice is built up and maintained so that heavy traffic can pass safely. Because the transition is not situated in the same location as it was when our group took benthic samples there on a previous visit, it was difficult for us to relocate and access the old site in order to make comparisons over time.