Antarctica’s Ferocious Blizzards

The Summer Camp Huts after a Blizzard

An Antarctica Blizzard (video)

Antarctica is known as the home of the Blizzard, which can be best be described as ‘Baraf ka toofan’- copious amounts of snow blown around by high velocity winds, winds often exceeding 150kph (80kt), winds ferocious enough to blow away anything in its path, and snow so blinding as to reduce visibility to a few cms. You might be holding someone’s hand but you won’t be able to see him. One can spend hours going around the station without even seeing it. Any outdoor activity is impossible. Maintaining one’s balance is in itself a huge task. Snow percolates one’s nostrils, dungaree zippers, shoes, shoe laces- everywhere. Even a one mm hole in a station wall is sufficient to allow tonnes of snow to accumulate inside the station. Sealing such holes and clearing the snow is a perpetual task during a blizzard.

Me !!!!!!...... Astronaut????

We........... After a Blizzard

Look at the marker on the wind guage going beyond the range (more than 110kt- 200kph)

A blizzard, once started can continue for days, sometimes weeks, at a stretch. And one blizzard follows another, usually at a few days’ interval during the winters. Such is the intensity of a blizzard that snowfall is horizontal rather than vertical. Hence, snow accumulation is minimal to nil except on the leeward side of an obstruction. Snow hits any exposed bit of skin with such force, so as to send a shock down one’s spine. It tends to accumulate on snow goggles and form a layer of ice on it. Several people have died in Antarctica, getting lost in blizzards.
Structures in Antarctica are designed to resist such high intensity winds. Any loose object can become a missile. The station is built on stilts to allow wind and snow to pass below it and thereby minimize snow accumulation along its walls. There have been instances of entire loaded containers being blown away by such winds. They have to be strategically placed to prevent such happenings. All summer huts have to be anchored properly.
Blizzards, and not the cold, are the most challenging natural phenomena in the frigid land of Antarctica, especially in the coastal regions.