Calif Bill wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
You guys in the mid-Atlantic states think the weather hit you pretty
hard this week? Read on, it could be much, much worse.

I have to admit that I'm confused by the public affairs officer's
reference to the "harsh winter" conditions at South Pole Station.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it *summer* down there right now?
Maybe the reference is to the fact that Polar Star is just now
beginning a deployment that will last well into the austral winter?


Summer can be really cold at times. My brother spent 3 summers there. Navy
SeaBee. He said they would get -50 degree storms during the summer. That
is 50 below zero F. They would leave the snowcats running to keep the
engines from freezing up, but they could not drive them and as the tracks
were too brittle.

It gets so cold there that they actually developed special alloys for
hand tools such as wrenches, because they would get too brittle and
break during use.