Hottest day on record in Australia

[pappy]

From NBCNews (Video at link)

(Stay safe Canetoad)

Quote:Firefighters battled scores of wildfires raging across southeast Australia on Tuesday as authorities evacuated national parks and warned that record-level, blistering temperatures and high winds had led to "catastrophic" conditions in some areas.
[....]
Firefighters hope cooler weather sweeping up the Australian east coast late Tuesday, which dramatically dropped temperatures in a matter of hours in some coastal towns, would ease the incendiary conditions. Monday was the hottest day on record for Australia, with the average temperature across the continent reaching 104.6 degrees F., Australia's 7 News network reported.
[....]
Wildfires have razed 50,000 acres of forests and farmland across southern Tasmania since Friday. In New South Wales, the country's most populous state, the fires had burned through more than 64,000 acres of land.
[....]
All state forests and national parks were closed as a precaution and total fire bans were in place with temperatures surpassing 113 degrees F. in some areas.

[azmouse]

I have nothing but sympathy for the people of Australia.
If you aren't used to temps like that it can be very difficult to adjust.

In AZ (you knew I had to mention the temps here ) we usually have around 10 days or so with temps over 110 in the summer. It's hot. Very hot. And even when you're used to extreme heat that starts to get dangerous.

[pappy]

(01-08-2013 09:04 AM)azmouse Wrote:  I have nothing but sympathy for the people of Australia.
If you aren't used to temps like that it can be very difficult to adjust.

In AZ (you knew I had to mention the temps here ) we usually have around 10 days or so with temps over 110 in the summer. It's hot. Very hot. And even when you're used to extreme heat that starts to get dangerous.

I sympathize with anyone dealing with extreme cold or heat. In this case that average temp of 104.6 F covered was for the entire continent. For comparison Australia and the continental US both have about 2.96 million sq. mi. of land area.

Can you imagine the entire US with an average temp of 105 F? How hot would you have to be in Arizona to average out areas like Washington and Maine for example.

All I can say is welcome to the new normal Mother Earth.

[canetoad]

Honestly Pappy, I've been too entertained by Alex Jones et al to worry about the heat!

Some parts of Victoria (my state) are doing it very hard, so is Tassie, NSW and Queensland. We've had a double whammy of LaNina, the rain producing weather system; now as we move into another predicted El Nino cycle there is a lot of vegetation to burn. No bushfire deaths are reported yet, thank goodness.

Thanks for the good wishes; I recently moved from a high fire risk area to a small town further south and closer to the sea. Summer is a lot more comfortable here.

It seems things are heating up in USA as well, this past year being the hottest on record.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/us-counts...2cfz1.html

[pappy]

From Facebook/AddictingInfo

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