Maybe he means when that area BEGINS its 40C plunge. Even though it is officially summer in the Antarctic, the sun has been getting lower on the horizon since Dec. 21. Right now it is getting colder and COLDER.
Yup. Temps are starting to drop and they will drop quickly. One of the best sites for info on the Antarctic is
A-Net Station run by what appears to be an old European,hippie guy, George Maat. ( I wanted to find the pic of him standing outside in his underwear at 40 below but this will have to do.
That means he carries all the European, enviro-whacko views of things but I'll give him credit for setting up one of the very first web based radio stations and blogs. He's provided a lot of info over the years.
On his page there are "live" pics from the South Pole although you have to search around a bit to get the exact one I'm thinking of. His site is not surprisingly a bit cluttered and confusing. Maybe it's the cold or maybe too much hippieness, I don't know.
Here's a link to one of the "live" shots on his page.