What was to have happened in November, has happened now, in the middle of January. The Priyadarshani Lake has finally melted completely. It was a painfully slow process this year, taking 4 months. The first signs of melting appeared in October, when tiny moats could be seen around the stones and boulders in the lake. The next event was the deformation of air bubbles trapped in the ice. They were arranged in a linear formation during the winters. But now the formation was highly variable, giving rise to interesting shapes. Then small pools of water could be seen on the ice. Priyadarshani Lake was now unwalkable. The cracks widened and soon the ice broke up into blocks, like pack ice. These blocks grew smaller and smaller very gradually, and now on the 13th January, they can no longer be seen. Priyadarshani Lake is now completely ice free. But not for too long. It will start to freeze again by the end of January, when the summer season ends and the temperature falls drastically.
Last year, the lake had melted fully by the first week of November, due to a rapid and probably early rise in temperature. The temperature last summer went up to 10ºC, whereas this year, it has not yet touched 5ºC. We also had a blizzard this summer, close to the Midsummer Day. Most of the other lakes hardly show any signs of melting except at the edges. The lakes behind the station fall under this category. They should have been overflowing by this time, causing the annual recharge of the Priyadarshani Lake. Usually, one can see beautiful ice formations and ice caves sparkling with unearthly colours during the summers. But that is missing this time. The only waterfall in Schirmacher is not yet functional. For some reason, we are seeing penguins in droves this year. All of Schirmacher is teeming with them. They even visit our station frequently. Once we saw a group of 20 penguins right behind our station. They can be seen basking in the sun, chirping away merrily.
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