Antarctica

 

It’s official, I am a repeat offender. This is what they told me at the Antarctic Division during my training back in 1999. The reason: twenty years before that, I had wintered at the French station of Dumont d’Urville.

I am not a polar hero but on some summer days in Casino I wish I was there. True, Dumont d’Urville can be a bit cool, like -30° in winter, but if you really want to experience real cold, you need to get to Vostok, right in the middle of the ice sheet at about 3500m of altitude. This is where the Russians confine themselves if Siberia is overbooked. They get -80° regularly, the record is -89° (1983).

Dumont d’Urville climate is not unlike Davis station, which the Aussies call the Riviera. Back in the 80’s when I was there, the average daily max hovered around -5° in summer, -17° in winter. The most unpleasant aspect of the climate was the wind. There is no wind at all at Vostok, but the air is much colder. So guess what: the air goes down the hill like a rocket. This is called the katabatic wind. Forget about cyclones, this is the most powerful wind on the planet, reaching easily 300km/h when it hits the coast. My coldest memory: -22° at about 200km/h. I am told it feels like -57°. It felt more like a burn.

I had some news of Dumont d’Urville a few years ago. It was scary. They had a heat wave with temperatures reaching +9° and contemplated rivers of water flowing down the ice sheet. To me this is the most striking evidence that climate emergency is right with us.