TEMPERATURES AT SOUTH POLE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28260, 24 April 1957, Page 8

TEMPERATURES AT SOUTH POLE

Frosts Of 152 Degrees Expected

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, April 22.

The first men to spend the winter at the South Pole expect the thermometer to drop to 120 deg below zero at midseason, the United States Navy said today.

This would be 30deg colder than anyone else has ever reported. Navy weather experts said. The current world record for cold in which men have lived is 90deg below, recorded in northeastern Siberia in February, 1933. The 18 Americans at the South Pole came within a degree of that mark on April 2, when they reported by radief a temperature of minus 89.

Altogether, 338 United States scientists and servicemen are spending the Polar winter at seven American outposts, scattered over distances of hundreds of miles. Here are some recent reports: Little America.—An attempt to hatch chicks for Easter failed. Inspection of six New Zealand eggs selected- for incubation showed “no growth.” Byrd Station. —Scientists were “astonished” to discover that ice in the area extended to a depth of 7800 ft to 7950 ft. They believe that all this ice rests on land. McMurdo Sound.—Marine Major S. A. Antes discovered near the Wilson-Piedmont Glacier an ice tunnel more than a mile long. Ellsworth Station—Navy cook Edward Davis said that the men were eating half as much again as their normal amount of food—mostly proteins.