South Pole
In midsummer, as the sun reaches its maximum elevation of about 23.5 degrees, high temperatures at the South Pole in January average at . As the six-month "day" wears on and the sun gets lower, temperatures drop as well: they reach around sunset (late March) and sunrise (late September). In midwinter, the average temperature remains steady at around . The highest temperature ever recorded at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station was on Christmas Day, 2011, and the lowest was on June 23, 1982 (for comparison, the lowest temperature directly recorded anywhere on earth was at Vostok Station on July 21, 1983, though was measured indirectly by satellite in East Antarctica between Dome A and Dome F in August 2010). Mean annual temperature at the South Pole is -49.3 °C (-56.7 °F).
Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station
The station was constructed by U.S Navy Seabees led by LTJG Richard Bowers, the 8-man Advance Party being transported by the VX-6 Air Squadron in 2 R4Ds on 20 Nov. 1956. The U.S. Eighteenth Air Force's C-124 Globemaster IIs airdropped most of the equipment and building material. The buildings were constructed from prefabricated 4x8 foot modular panels. Exterior surfaces were four inches thick, with an aluminum interior surface, and a plywood exterior surface, sandwiching fiberglass. Skylights were the only windows in flat uniform roof levels, while buildings were connected by a burlap and chicken wire covered tunnel system. The last of the construction crew departed on 4 Jan. 1957. The first wintering-over party consisted of 8 IGY scientists led by Paul Siple and 8 Navy support men led by LTJG John Tuck. Key components of the camp included an astronomical observatory, a Rawin Tower, weather balloon inflation shelter, and a 1000 foot snow tunnel with pits for a seismometer and magnetometer. The lowest average temperatures recorded by the group were in the -90s F., though as Siple points out, "even at -60° I had seen men spitting blood because the capillaries of the bronchial tract frosted."