Results tagged “heat wave” from Oh Susanna

Melbournians were shocked yesterday with the realisation that despite 17 days passing since Black Saturday on 7^th February, the fires are still burning, and even a moderately hot day combined with ignition of dry fuel and wind puts homes and lives at risk once again. This time, the danger was much closer to the city; in urban fringe of Upwey and Belgrave.

The smoke was visible from our office, and nervous souls living in the general region of the fire left work early, unable to wait until normal departure time. A call from one, describing flames seen in the distance makes the threat seem even more real.

Fortunately, with temperatures only in the mid 30's, and a strong contingent of fire appliances and fire fighters, the area burnt was limited to round 300 hectares, with just one house lost. In the area of Daylesford, North West of Melbourne, another fire still burns, last I heard, still out of control.

Yesterday afternoon, residents to the East of the city voted with their feet, their fire plans consisting of one word (in the words of one caller to the ABC); GO. The mass exodus lead to more than one car accident and traffic jams on Burwood Highway inbound; and outbound on the Monash, Wellington Road, Ferntree Gully Road, as just as many people headed Eastwards towards their homes. Strange, as  there must have been a conjunction of all that traffic at some point.

Lucky that the temperature was something like 11-12 degrees cooler than Black Saturday, and the danger, while real, was not as great as that earlier, horrific day.

Now, we wait for Friday with some trepidation, as temperatures are predicted to be in the high 30's, with stronger winds.

There are lots of places that you can get updates about what has happened in Victoria over the last forty eight hours. The Age. ABC news

So far, it has been announced that 76 people have died and as many as 1000 homes lost. It is expected that as the days progress, more people will be found to have perished,  in isolated areas where it has not yet been safe to travel, as fires still rage, and tree lined roads are dangerous to pass. The fire fight goes on with hundreds of thousands of hectares burnt. Exhausted people collapsed at the refuge areas, and the evidence of very hot flames clearly visible in the photos on the web sites above.

Time will tell whether there is anything that could be done, but it seems quite clear that last minute dashes to safety with a fire of cataclysmic proportions bearing down on towns deep in the bush is the wrong decision to take.

The nation has rallied, with strike teams coming from South Australia and New South Wales. The defence forces will provide practical aid to get through the weeks ahead.

Possessions can be replaced, but loved ones cannot... and tears will continue to fall

Today the temperature has reached 44 45.1 deg, after 44 yesterday, and 43.4 the day before...At least, we haven't had any air conditioning problems today, nor any power outages, at work anyway, but lots of places are suffering with no power as well.

There is a cool change predicted at any moment...

But the respite will be very short, tomorrow is predicted to be 35...

That almost seems like cool weather after three days over 43...

Postscript: The temperature reached 47 deg in the Wimmera...

The heat wave continues, yesterday's top was 43 degrees, with another one predicted today, and more hot weather to come over coming days.

According to the weather bureau, the current heat wave is expected to be the hottest for something like 100 years, and there is little chance of any relief until the weekend, and even then, there will only be a brief respite before the heat rolls in again.

Apparently this heat wave is caused by a blocking high pressure system over the Tasman Sea, drawing hot Northerly winds across Victoria and South Australia from central Australia. The heat changes lots of things in the way we go about things: our houses are not built for extended heat waves, as we normally only get one or two hot days in a row before a cool change. The affordability of air conditioning systems means that many of us do have them installed these days, in contrast to my childhood when the best that we could manage was a fan.

The most extreme day that I can remember, as a child was when it reached 116 deg F or 46 C. When you don't have air conditioning, there is nothing that can be done to make the house cooler. During the heat of the day, my brothers and I sat motionless on our wide shady verandah in our cotton shorts and shirts, spreading our limbs out so that there was the maximum exposure of bare skin to any stray breeze that came along. We tried to sleep at nights, but pillows felt unbelievably hot, and after a while, nothing made a difference at all. Even sleeping on campbeds on the verandah didn't help, as the beds really only allow you to stay in one spot on the bed, in contrast to normal beds when you can move around to a spot that has not been heated to body temperature.

Eventually the temperature will drop, things will return to normal, and the events of this week will go into folklore: Do you remember how hot it was in January 2009?