Monthly Climate
Summary for December 2012
South Pole
Station, Antarctica
Temperature:
Average temp............
-25.3°C / -13.5°F
Departure from normal... +2.5°C /
+4.5°F
Maximum temp............ -21.1°C / -6.0°F on day 25
Minimum temp............
-29.8°C / -21.6°F on days 01 and 17
Wind:
Average wind speed..........
8.9 mph or 7.7 knots
Prevailing wind direction... Grid Northeast or
030 degrees
Maximum wind speed..........
28 mph or 24 knots on days 03 and 21
Maximum wind direction......
Grid Northeast
Average vectored wind.......
043 degrees at 5.3 knots
Station Pressure:
Average pressure........
690.0 mb or 20.376 in. Hg
Departure from
normal... +1.9 mb or +0.056 in. Hg
Highest pressure........
701.5 mb or 20.715 in. Hg on day 26
Lowest pressure.........
684.5 mb or 20.213 in. Hg on days 01, 02, and 17
Physio-altitude:
Average Physio-alt = 10253
ft / 3125 m
Highest Physio-alt = 10459
ft / 3188 m on days 01, 02, and 17
Lowest Physio-alt = 9827
ft / 2995 m on day 26
Sky Cover:
Average cloud cover
(8ths)... 04
Days
clear................... 07
Days partly
cloudy........... 18
Days
cloudy.................. 06
Sunshine:
Sunset on 23 March 2013
Average hours per day...
18.6
Percent of possible..... 78
Visibility... 1 day with a
visibility of 1/4 mile or less.
Snowfall..... Trace; average
net change at snow stakes +0.385 inches.
Balloon flight data:
Number of soundings for the
month... 62
Average height of
sounding.......... 26.8 mb or 25265 meters above msl
Highest
sounding.................... 10.2 mb or 31848 meters above msl
on the day
28 /00Z sounding
Remarks:
00 soundings were missed.
61 soundings were terminated
above 50 mb.
01 soundings were terminated
between 50 and 100 mb.
00 soundings were terminated
below 100 mb.
**RECORDS**
December 7th: The average
daily wind speed of 2.8 kts/3.3 mph broke the previous lowest average daily
wind speed record of 3.6 kts/4.1 mph set in 1997.
Prepared by: Timothy Markle/
Phillip Marzette/ Jeremiah Jolliff
Meteorology Department
Amundsen-Scott South Pole
Station, Antarctica
720-568-1810
(satellite dependent)
720-568-1809
(satellite dependent)
X61810,
X61809 (on-station)
(a cura di Alberto Marenga)