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Anne Skyvington

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AustraliaNature

Temperature Records Broken in Australia this Weekend

written by Anne Skyvington February 15, 2017
man-bushfire-nature

We live near the beach at Coogee, so we are fortunate enough to get a fairly constant sea breeze.  But other areas in Western Sydney and in the Western plains were not so lucky. Residents of Richmond on the north-west fringe of Sydney saw the mercury climb to 47 degrees on Saturday, placing the town within less than a degree of the title of global hot spot. Tamworth reached 44C and Moree 46C, while Walgett and Bourke were heading towards a sweltering 47C.

2016-fires-nsw

As soon as you leave the eastern seaboard, temperatures soar in summer. And it’s getting worse. My husband travels by train to Lidcombe to go to work, and he feels the difference as he nears the far western suburbs of Sydney.

We were warned that this weekend past was going to break records. I’d joined a long queue in Harvey Norman store on Friday to purchase an electrical fan for our daughter and her two young boys; most of the inexpensive electric fans in the district were already sold out. The woman in front of me in the queue was buying the same fan—along with dozens of other women—for her daughter.

I rang my son in the Lower Hunter Valley on Saturday. He said Paterson, near where he lives, was the fifth hottest place on the globe that day. He and his wife, her mother, and their four children were staying indoors at Vacy with the air-conditioner turned on.

129 bush fires had been raging not far away in the Upper Hunter. Twenty are still uncontained today.

NSW Rural Fire Services (RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons expressed relief that no lives had been lost, thanks to the combined effort of firefighters and the community.

“This is as bad as it gets”, he said, “with wind gusts of 90 km an hour fanning the fires, and flames higher than houses striking towns and properties. ”

Out-of-control bushfires have all but decimated the small town of Uarbry in NSW’s central west.

Rare pyrocumulus dry lightning strikes were captured on camera coming from the bush fires.

After a weekend of catastrophic fire conditions that destroyed homes, livestock and agricultural machinery in various parts of the state, assessors today, Monday, have begun investigating the extent of the damage.

Two firefighters were among those to lose properties, while two of their injured colleagues have been hospitalised.

bush-fire-storm-cloud

My sister rang from Mullumbimby on the far North Coast of New South Wales. She had turned on the air conditioner for the first time: against her ideological stance, but it was hot and humid. She talked about possibly moving south to (cooler) Tasmania and expressed anger at the Climate Change sceptics in the government and the world.

“It’s not just a question of records being broken here,” she said, “but it’s the overall rise in temperature across the globe that is happening quicker than expected.”

The photos by Nick Moir and Dean Sewell in the Courier Article “Homes and livestock lost as 73 fires continue to burn” say it all: http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/4462715/homes-and-livestock-lost-as-73-fires-continue-to-burn/

On the east coast Fires; on the west coast towards Perth: Floods.

Extreme weather conditions are symptomatic of Climate Change: See the article on this topic in The Conversation.

Temperature Records Broken in Australia this Weekend was last modified: June 3rd, 2017 by Anne Skyvington
elements of climate change in AustraliaNew South Wales Fires in 2017signs of global waming
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Anne Skyvington

I have been a reader/writer all of my life as far back as I can remember. Blogging has opened me up to another world, where I can share my skills and continue to create through word and picture. Writing is about seeing the world and recreating it for others to see through different eyes.

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2 comments

Roger Britton February 16, 2017 at 9:20 am

Interesting Ann. Our dog would agree with you about global warming. Currently he is laying on his back, on the veranda, with his legs spread, panting.So, it is not only humans suffering.

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Anne Skyvington February 16, 2017 at 9:44 am

So true. Look at the photos of beast caught by the fires in the Courier article. And this coming weekend is going to be another stinker by all accounts. Hope you’ve got an electric fan at least!

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About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington

Anne Skyvington is a writer based in Sydney who has been practising and teaching creative writing skills for many years. You can learn here about structuring a short story and how to go about creating a longer work, such as a novel or a memoir. Subscribe to this blog and receive a monthly newsletter on creative writing topics and events.

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About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington is a Sydney-based writer and blogger. <a href="http://anneskyvington.com.au She has self-published a novel, 'Karrana' and is currently writing a creative memoir based on her life and childhood with a spiritual/mystical dimension.

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