• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Australian Heatwave

My parents live in Lara, small town about 50k from Melbourne. Today it reached 47.9 c (that's 118 f). Fires everywhere. In Melbourne it reached 46.4. Trains cancelled all over, the sky is a weird orange colour because of the smoke which is all over the place. It just seems apocolyptic. Thankfully a cool change is on it's way, will hit Melbournea round 6pm and drop about 15 degrees in half an hour which will be heavenly. I'm inner city so no danger but a lot of people are in danger out in the country. It's just horrible. I stepped outside (we have aircon) to move the plants on our balcony into some shade... it's just like a blast furnace out there. Global warming doubters be damned. It's here, we're all going to die, and frankly I don't think there's anything any of us can do about it. Drink up people.
 
I believe that fires are burning to the north of Adelaide as well.

It is currently about 24C in Hobart at about 4.30pm. It rained through the night and in the morning. The rain isn't surprising as the 4 day long Wooden Boat Festival is underway and it is Regatta Day on Monday. Hobart can go weeks without much rain but if it is Regatta Day, Show Day, Hobart Cup Day, any other special event day etc odds on that it will rain ;)
 
Mitty said:
My parents live in Lara, small town about 50k from Melbourne. Today it reached 47.9 c (that's 118 f). Fires everywhere. In Melbourne it reached 46.4. Trains cancelled all over, the sky is a weird orange colour because of the smoke which is all over the place. It just seems apocolyptic. Thankfully a cool change is on it's way, will hit Melbournea round 6pm and drop about 15 degrees in half an hour which will be heavenly. I'm inner city so no danger but a lot of people are in danger out in the country. It's just horrible. I stepped outside (we have aircon) to move the plants on our balcony into some shade... it's just like a blast furnace out there. Global warming doubters be damned. It's here, we're all going to die, and frankly I don't think there's anything any of us can do about it. Drink up people.
Click to expand...

Adelaide is supposed to be cooling down but still over 30 (not sure if we topped 40 earlier day).

The outside temp might drop quickly but the inside might stay up a bit because the buildings, houses etc will absorbed a lot of heat.
 
Melbourne apparently recorded its hottest maximum temperature ever today - something in the neighbourhood of 46C (I don't do primitive measures like Farenheit). I'm not sure if the maxima in western NSW hit similar levels (as were forecast) but they were still well into the 40s. Even here in southern NSW it's still around 36 degrees as I type this. Not Fun, especially with no aircon.

Pegaritaville said:
I'll take our cold over that heat any day. You can always bundle up when it's cold, but temps that high can be dangerous.
Click to expand...
Amen to that. Cold is far easier to deal with than heat.
 
On the Central Coast, was quite hot today, but is cooling off wonderfully right now. What the weather does on Sunday, however, might be another story.

The bushfire stuff is scary. Big fire in a National Park not far from my place. The smoke rolled low across the ground for kilometers, right across the land and up to the foothills.
 
...and while the southeast mainland states are suffering heatwave and fire, Queensland is having massive flooding.
 
Last edited:
Wow! Just heard a news update: 14 people have died today in the Victorian bushfires.

That's terrible. Can't believe how many in such a short period. Sad.
 
Australis said:
Wow! Just heard a news update: 14 people have died today in the Victorian bushfires.

That's terrible. Can't believe how many in such a short period. Sad.
Click to expand...

And now they think it could be up to 40 which has to make it one of the worst fire death tols in many years :(
 
It looks like most of the township of Kinglake, north of Melbourne, has been destrpyed by fire and that at least 6 people from the town are dead :(

Edited to add - it is being reported that all the Kinglake victims were in the same car, so it looks like they are all from the same family.

It also looks like arsonists are responsible for some of the fires (no surprise there).
 
Last edited:
Mitty said:
My parents live in Lara, small town about 50k from Melbourne. Today it reached 47.9 c (that's 118 f). Fires everywhere. In Melbourne it reached 46.4. Trains cancelled all over, the sky is a weird orange colour because of the smoke which is all over the place. It just seems apocolyptic. Thankfully a cool change is on it's way, will hit Melbournea round 6pm and drop about 15 degrees in half an hour which will be heavenly. I'm inner city so no danger but a lot of people are in danger out in the country. It's just horrible. I stepped outside (we have aircon) to move the plants on our balcony into some shade... it's just like a blast furnace out there. Global warming doubters be damned. It's here, we're all going to die, and frankly I don't think there's anything any of us can do about it. Drink up people.
Click to expand...

And yet here in Minnesota we have had the coldest winter in years. So much so that the phrase "global warming" is used as an ironic joke.
 
^^^ That is why it is better to use the term 'climate change".

With the weather Australians have been having over the last few years I don't think there is much debate in Australia that there is "global warming".

Back to talking about the bushfires - it looks liek the township of Maryville has also been destroy with possibly only one building left standing.
 
The conformed deathtoll is now at 25.

The townships of Strathewen and Narbethong have also been devasted and it is believed that little remains of either town.


Photo of Maryville

Maryville.jpg
 
Last edited:
It's tragic. Worst fires in the state of Victoria in recorded history. Whole towns destroyed.

I have quite alot of friends who live in the affected areas - I hope they are ok, but it seems at the very least many will have lost their homes.

That death toll is just preliminary and it will rise as rescue teams and townmembers gain access to areas currently cut off by the devestation, smoke and flames.

Terms like 'unprecedented' and 'apocalypse' are being used. The army has been called in to assist, along with emergency teams from other states.

The fires were deliberately lit by some firebug pyro. Scores of people dead, god knows how much livestock & native fauna has been killed, many many acres of forest and homes destroyed - what a terrible waste.
 
Death toll now at 50. The town of Maryvillie is probably gone entirely.
 
Last edited:
It's tragic. Worst fires in the state of Victoria in recorded history. Whole towns destroyed
Click to expand...

I think it is too early to say if these fires are worse that the 1939 Victorian Fires in which 71 people died.
 
A story to show the two extremes in Australian weather at the moment

One Victorian family is enduring all of the weather extremes gripping eastern Australia.
The worst flood in 30 years has seen interstate truck driver Kevin DeVries stranded for five days at Rollingstone, near Ingham, in north Queensland.
"I've come up form Victoria, I left in 49 degree heat," he said.
"I got to the border, the road is melting before me ... tar is splashing up on my truck.
"I get into New South Wales, I go through fires, and I come through Queensland and listen to this rain - unbelievable - I've never seen anything like it."
Meanwhile, Mr DeVries's wife and three children have been caught up in the Victorian fires.
His family was forced to flee their home at Narre Warren in Melbourne's south-east yesterday when the inferno claimed around six houses in their street.
Click to expand...

SOURCE
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top