Midwinter

Current Conditions
Temperature: -9F
Wind Chill: -21F

Many of you in the northern hemisphere recently celebrated the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. In Anchorage, Alaska, at 61˚N, that day was 19 hours and 22 minutes long from sunrise to sunset. In Portland, Oregon, at 46˚N, it was 15 hours and 41 minutes. As you head south the longest day gets shorter and shorter:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 40˚N: 15h 3m
San Diego, California, 33˚N: 14h 18m
Mexico City, Mexico, 19˚N: 13h 18m

Until you reach Quito, Ecuador, where there is no longest day of the year. They're all 12 hours and 7 minutes long (the extra 7 minutes are because the Sun is bigger than the Earth, and it illuminates slightly more than half of the Earth at a time).

Continuing south, July 21st is, of course, the winter solstice. Now we're talking about the shortest day of the year:

Lima, Peru, 12˚S: 11h 25m
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 35˚S: 9h 52m
Punta Arenas, Chile, 53˚S: 7h 32m

At the Antarctic Circle, 66.5˚S, the sun would have come up briefly on June 2oth and again on June 22nd, leaving June 21st without any sunrise at all. So we can't even measure the shortest day, we have to measure the longest night:

Antarctic Circle, 66.5˚S: about 2 days
Davis Station (Australian), Antarctica, 69˚S: 1 month, 7 days, 23 hours, 16 minutes
McMurdo Station, Antarctica, 78˚S: 3 months, 24 days, 22 hours, 8 minutes
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica, 90˚S: 5 months, 29 days, 6 hours, 10 minutes

Being that we endure such an extended period in the dark, the mid-point, winter solstice, becomes a much celebrated milestone throughout Antarctica. Check out Brody's blog for all the Midwinter greetings from stations across the continent.

Our own celebration was a grand affair. It seems that everyone on station got involved in some way. Volunteers magically turned the galley into a banquet hall and dance floor:

The decorations were fantastic, and complete with ice sculptures, dry ice fountains, centerpieces, and candles (a rare concession due to fire danger).

Other volunteers poured wine and served appetizers for the pre-dinner social. Here are Carol and Lisa serving bruschetta (made with fresh greenhouse tomatoes!) and champagne:

I provided music, of course, along with Jen and Kish:

This picture perfectly captures our high level of organization and sobriety for the event. Check out the solid ice wine holder behind Kish! I can actually pinpoint this exact moment, though I don't remember a photo being taken. I'm laughing at Cathy and Shawn, who are laughing at me for using the microphone to ask somebody, anybody, for another glass of bubbly. Here we are a little more composed:

For those of you who are interested, I recorded the entire performance and posted it on SurlyJam.

We eventually sat down to a fantastic dinner, with lots of freshies from the greenhouse and plenty of wine. Here are Jaybird, Kish, Dave and Deneen enjoying it:

Happy Midwinter!! Now the sun is on its way back up to the horizon!