13 Weather

In general, weather conditions at Table Mt were mild enough to allow field work nearly the entire time (Table 2). However, the conditions were often very localised with warm coastal air masses moving up the Ferrar Glacier and cold Polar Plateau air masses flowing down the glacier. When these two air masses met in the Table Mt area, they would cause a local build-up of Stratus or Stratocumulus clouds. This would commonly occur from mid morning to late afternoon. This weather pattern occurred about 30% of our total time in the field. These conditions would sometimes result in light snowfall.

During the field season, no winds above 25 knots were experienced even though reasonably strong katabatic winds could be seen and heard blowing down the Ferrar and Tedrow Glaciers. The wind was predominantly 5 knots from the south west.