next refresh in 10 seconds  |  Status: Live Enlarge Image McMurdo Station seen from Ob Hill. The McMurdo Station Webcam is located on the edge of Arrival Heights (77°49’S 166° 39’E) just north of Hut Point on the west side of Hut Point Peninsula. During the winter the camera is focused on the center of McMurdo Station to take advantage of the lights that illuminate the station during the polar night. Visible: on the right, Building 155 (large blue building) that houses the station dining facility, laundry, library, station store, television and radio studios, a barber shop, offices, and some dormitory space; station medical clinic (red roof); fire house (brown building); on the left, warehouses (green buildings across from Building 155); construction and maintenance workshops; and the science support center. On the far right behind the fire house is the Crary Science and Engineering Center and to its left is the NSF Chalet. For information about current research conducted in or near McMurdo Station, see the NSF McMurdo Station and Vicinity Research Projects page.

McMurdo Station (77°51'S, 166°40'E), the main U.S. station in Antarctica, is a coastal station on the volcanic hills at the southern tip of Ross Island, about 3,864 km (2,415 miles) south of Christchurch, New Zealand, and 1,360 km (850 miles) north of the South Pole. The original station was built in 1955 to 1956 for the International Geophysical Year. Today's station is the primary logistics facility for supply of inland stations and remote field camps, and is also the waste management center for much of the U.S. Antarctic Program. Year-round and summer science projects are supported at McMurdo.

The station has a harbor, landing strips on the sea ice and shelf ice, and a helicopter pad. The three airfields-the annual sea-ice runway, Pegasus White Ice Runway, and Williams Field Skiway-are used at different times of the year for different reasons. The station's 85 or so buildings range in size from a small radio shack to large, three-story structures. Repair facilities, dormitories, administrative buildings, a firehouse, power plant, water distillation plant, wharf, stores, clubs, warehouses, a science support center, and the first-class, 4,320 square-meter Crary Lab are linked by above-ground water, sewer, telephone, and power lines.

The mean annual temperature is -18°C (0°F). Temperatures may reach 8°C (46°F) in summer and -50°C (-58°F) in winter. The average wind is 12 knots, but winds have exceeded 100 knots.

McMurdo Station began austral winter operations on February 20, 2010, when the last flight left for Christchurch, New Zealand. About 200 people will spend the winter at the station on Ross Island. The sun will set for the winter in late April. To find out more about life at U.S. Antarctic research stations, see the Around the Continent section of The Antarctic Sun.