Some coastal areas endure almost constant strong winds, whereas other areas may be quite calm much of the time and then suddenly experience hurricane force winds as air rushes down through glacial valleys. These sudden and unexpected winds are called katabatic, or down slope, winds. The famous Australian explorer Douglas Mawson established a base there in 1912 and recorded wind speeds for two years. This is reputed to be the windiest place on earth, because the average wind speed during that period was 72 kilometres per hour (45 miles per hour), and gusts of more than 240 kph ...
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Some coastal areas endure almost constant strong winds, whereas other areas may be quite calm much of the time and then suddenly experience hurricane force winds as air rushes down through glacial valleys. These sudden and unexpected winds are called katabatic, or down slope, winds. The famous Australian explorer Douglas Mawson established a base there in 1912 and recorded wind speeds for two years. This is reputed to be the windiest place on earth, because the average wind speed during that period was 72 kilometres per hour (45 miles per hour), and gusts of more than 240 kph (150 mph) were common. Nevertheless, wind speeds have been observed to drop very significantly just a few miles away from the coast.
Visitors to the Arctic should be aware that katabatic winds can occur quite suddenly, and with little warning, but then die down again just as quickly. They create dramatically low effective temperatures, due to the wind-chill factor. Also strong gale-force winds are quite common, especially in the region between 40º-60ºS. These cyclonic storms are caused by extremely cold air coming from Antarctica meeting the relatively warm and moist air over more northerly seas. This accounts for the fearsome reputation of the Drake Passage. The storms tend to circle Antarctica from west to east.
