10 August 2007

News this week is brought to you by Nick and Ty from the Casey Dieso Contingent.

Following on from last week's run of delightful, fine days, the true Casey weather returned on Friday and remained with us for the entire weekend. With Monday came the prospect of another week of great weather, however to date this can be summarised as "fine, not much wind, not much sun, not much snow, but a lot of cloud".

During the week, even though the weather had improved, the SAR team chose indoor activities for this month's regular training exercise.

SAR Training in the Green Store 1 Photo: Ty B.

SAR Training in the Green Store 2 Photo: Ty B.

Robbie took advantage of the conditions and steamed ahead with transferring containers to and from Casey and the wharf as the snow through Thala Valley was now sufficiently compacted and firm.

Robbie at Work 1 Photo: Ty B.

Robbie at Work 2 Photo: Nick O.

The Chippies have continued their work preparing for the installation of the new freezer in the Green Store, while the Plumbers and Sparkies have been continuing their routine maintenance.

Chris and Gary prepare to install the freezer Photo: Ian P.

Others have also seized the opportunity to get out and do some work that is so much easier when things are not so cold.

On Monday two groups headed out, with Largy and Denis going up to the skiway to check on the condition of the equipment stored there for the winter and beginning preparations for the coming summer flying season.

Bill, Brian and Ian went up to the Lanyon Junction Automatic Weather Station (AWS) to check its condition and retrieve some of the sensors in preparation for the annual servicing of the various remote units.

A hard life for an AWS – Buried 1.5 metres Photo: Ian P.

This used to be an anemometer Photo: Ian P.

Tuesday saw Bill and Ian off station again as they visited the sea ice cameras that overlook Newcomb, O'Brien and Sparkes Bay. These cameras take a daily image of the state of the sea ice and the images are periodically retrieved from cameras and sent back to Kingston.

What a sea ice camera sees when a sea ice camera sees ice! Photo: Ian P.

On Monday morning, the Met informed us that we had not just broken, but totally smashed, the previous records for the highest daily maximum and minimum temperatures for August. The new records now stand at 0.8C for the highest daily minimum and 5.0C for the highest daily maximum. 

With these decidedly summer temperatures we have the sight of icicles hanging from various places around station and people wandering around in shirt sleeves, shorts and thongs (the footwear variety!!!). Perhaps this explains why Casey still has plenty of socks left; with these conditions we don't need them.

Heat Wave!! Photo: Nick O.

Of course, with warmer temperatures and plenty of strong wind for a few days, we have once again seen most of the sea ice blow out of Newcomb Bay.

Warm, Windy Days Photo: Ty B.

Warm, Windy Days Photo: Ty B.