Thursday, January 10, 2013

This week in Australia...

We've had two weeks of extreme weather with a bit more to come. Tasmania doesn't burn because it's too wet.. but last week it did. Towns threatened, forests burned, 140 homes lost.
Then the extreme weather got to New South Wales and Victoria with hundreds of fires over several horrible days.
Tomorrow the heat gets to Queensland and we worry the same will happen there.

I live in South Australia where we get more than our share of heat, so much that the Bureau of Meteorology had to invent more colours for the heat map. Black for 50-52C (122-127F) and Purple for 52-54C (127-132F)...and you can see where I live on the map...see the Purple bit?...




This map shows the Cyclones (Tornadoes for you in the USA) At least none get here, in fact we really only get the tiny bit of rain left over after the rest of the country has had their share. (there had to be some advantages to living in the middle of nowhere) Our evaporation rate is four times our annual rainfall.





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12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tempo,
It was suppose to be hot here the other day, they predicted 37C but it only got to 32C. So we have been lucky here in QLD so far.

I feel so sorry for those people that have lost their homes in the fires. We have had a few here as well, one I know of was started by kids, every year this happens up here. (sigh)

Joe Pereira said...

Good grief, I can't imagine temeratures in the mid fifties! I have showers cooler than that!

Windsmoke. said...

38 down here today with showers and thunderstorms then cooler for a coupla days. Had a couple of grass fires lit by scumbag arsonist along the railway track that threatened lives and homes that's about as close as i've come to a bushfire so far.

Tempo said...

Hi Mags, I saw those fires on the news, I guess most of the fires have been deliberately lit, a few accidentally and a few by weather. I'm thinking the laws have to be much stronger to prevent these sick people. (kids excepted...they need proper parenting)
Hi Joe, heat is a way of life here. We dont make plans until we know the next few days temperature range, we sit and wait then cram everything into the few cool days when they arrive. 40 yesterday, 38 today then down to 30...woohoo!
Hi Windsmoke, 38 here today as well.. not nice! We dont have much to burn here, it's all Myall trees and Saltbush which is well dispersed so we dont get a lot of fire. A bit further west it's all Mallee which burns very well when it gets lit, at the moment though there is a lot of winter grass, lush and thick but dry and ready to burn

Belle said...

I read about this heat yesterday and thought of you. I feel sorry for everyone there. We had a firestorm here in Kelowna once and lost about 300 homes. No one died though.

Kal said...

That is absolutely insane. My sister lives in Cairns. I could never survive in heat like that. I hope you are finding a cool freezer to sit in until things get better.

Tempo said...

Hi Belle, where I live we dont have many fires, short story is that theres very little to burn. Our common tree is called a Myall (pronounced Mile) It takes so long to grow and is so hard the wood cant be cut with a chainsaw and most trees here have been there long before white people came to Australia.
Hi Kal, Thats all good mate but it just doesn't cool down, it stays blisteringly hot from Spring (September 1st) until late Autumn (April) If you dont like the heat (and many dont) you move house to a cooler place. It didnt really bother me until I got old... now it slays me!

Dr. Theda said...

Wow... I could Never survive that kind of heat... our best wishes to you good sir...

mapstew said...

Keep well my friend.
Three of my family have just today returned to Melbourne after a visit home.

Tempo said...

Dr Theda, It's not like we want to endure, we endure because we must. The town look deserted on days like that, hardly a car or person to be seen. Some shops dont see a single person walk through their doors all day.
Hi Map, Melbourne is not too bad, a bit cooler there than most of Australia. Just to add insult to the injury of the past heatwave now we have a Cyclone barrelling down the West Australia coast...sigh!

River said...

You're in the purple?
Wow, I thought we were hot enough down here and I was being thankful for no humidity.
Today we had some rain and I hope the Eastern states get some too, to help with putting out those fires.

Jen said...

I thought you must have made a mistake in converting from C to F. Then I watched the news. Wow.

Your crocodiles are far more likely to chase than our alligators. They're downright timid in comparison.