Abstract: Inexpressible Island in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, has been proposed as a site for a new Antarctic station for China. Here we present an analysis of temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed and wind direction records of AWS Manuela at Inexpressible Island. Multi-year averaged temperature is −18.5°C, with a significant warming trend during summer. Multi-year averaged humidity is 45%, with significant increasing trends apparent in all seasons. Multi-year averaged pressure is 979.7hPa, though no significant trend is apparent. Multi-year averaged wind speed is 12.0m/s and dominant wind direction is WNW. The cold and dry katabatic wind is the dominant feature in this area, with most katabatic events occurring in winter (49.8%). During the typical winter katabatic event, wind speed varied between 25 and 45m/s and mean duration exceeded more than 10 hours. Compared with Zhongshan Station, the temperature and humidity at Inexpressible Island are lower, and wind speeds greater, posing considerable challenges to scientific activities there especially in winter.

Key words: Antarctica, Ross Sea, Inexpressible Island, climate, humidity, wind, temperature