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Living
with the wind and the cold
(part 2 of 4)
Tuesday June 27th 2000
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While
the Red Shed (Our living quarters) may have been designed
to withstand 200kph winds, it still sounds like it might take
off during a Blizz. The gusting wind buffets the end of the
building sending vibrations throughout all the walls, windows
and floors as though we had a constant earthquake. Lying in
bed and trying to sleep is like sleeping on a train. Every
now and then you can hear chunks of flying snow and ice break
hit the outside and slide down the side of the building with
a bang.
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Blowing snow creates a "cotton wool" effect to everything,
including this iceberg in East Bay |
The
bottles on the shelves in the bar rattle around, and the shelves
are on an angle to stop the bottles falling on the floor. If you
put your hand against the windows you can feel the glass warp and
bend in time with the wind gusts- even though the windows are triple
glazed. Looking out the mess windows you can see the tonnes of blowing
snow flying past like a race car driving past and the snow is so
thick that you cannot even see the sun, or have any idea where it
is in the sky.
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There
are air vents for the sewerage system on the top of the roof,
and the air flowing past them creates a large vacuum that
sucks out the water seal from the S-bend traps in all the
toilets resulting in the water splattering over the floor
if the lid is not down.
During
a blizzard there is a large pressure difference between inside
and outside of the buildings. This results in blowing snow
being forced through any small hole or crack in the door seal
which then accumulates in a pile. After only a few hours quite
a lot of snow can build up on the inside of the hole. On most
of the doors it is hard to maintain a tight seal so Blizz
often piles up in the cold porches.
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Snow
builds up after only a few hours and through a very small
gap in the door seal. |
Email
continues in part 3
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