Thule, Greenland is visited by some strong winds. Some say the World’s highest measured windspeed occurred here. (See: Burt, Christopher. Extreme Weather. NY: Norton, 2004, p. 249.) During the worst of these storms – known as “Phase Three” storms, sustained hurricane speed winds make Thule a very dangerous place.

This shot was taken during a Phase Two storm. Winds were strong enough that we had been ordered confined to quarters, but visibility was greater than zero, so I decided to risk a reprimand by having a friend take this shot from the safety of the barracks.

The storm lasted almost three days, during which we stayed in our barracks, ate “delicious” MRE’s and suffered through the dismal programming on A-FARTS.

By the way, if you are interested, there are some beautiful images of the Thule area on this page. They were taken by Jack Stevens, who was the “official” Thule photographer when I was there in 1985-1987, and evidently, might still be!

Thule weather.