Fun Facts About Antarctica: Part 1

In the last year or so, a common reaction when telling anyone about our upcoming trip to Antarctica has been, "How cold is it going to be?"

Fun fact: it is currently summer in Antarctica right now! That means...

Conditions are mild, and changeable. Enjoyable sunny days can swiftly change to cold, windy storms with snow flurries and rolling seas. Average daily temperatures in mid-season are between 25 and 35 Fahrenheit or -4 and +2 Celsius; however wind conditions can make it seem colder.

- Quark Expeditions, Pre-Departure Guide Antarctica 2019-20

This time of year, the continent also experiences nearly 24 hours of daylight.

Emblem of the Antarctic Treaty (©Alakasam)

I stumbled across some other fun facts about Antarctica over the holidays, courtesy of Wikipedia:

• At 14,200,000 square kilometres (5,500,000 square miles), it is the fifth-largest continent and nearly twice the size of Australia. 
• At 0.00008 people per square kilometre, it is by far the least densely populated continent. 
• Antarctica is a de facto condominium, governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status. This means that it is a political territory (state or border area) in or over which multiple sovereign powers formally agree to share equal dominium (in the sense of sovereignty) and exercise their rights jointly, without dividing it into "national" zones.

I've got more Antarctica trivia I could throw at you, about currency and time zones and types of penguins - but I'll save all of that for another time.