This is the temperature it reached according to The Age newspaper website (115.5F!). I spent the day lying on my bed in front of a fan sort of reading but listening to the radio.
Apparently it might even get hotter!
The sky is quite gray - I don't think from clouds but more likely smoke. There are fires everywhere in the state that I have lived and where friends and acquaintances live. It's crazy.
(the highlands of Victoria)
I have the curtains shut and the wind is howling round my unit. According to the people on the radio - many from the Fire Authorities, the weather bureau - these conditions are worse than what it was like before the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 when a lot of houses and lives were lost. I remember that day and it felt like the earth stood still.
This time I feel like there is a bit more control. The aim of all the authorities is to get through without life loss. I hope we do. We have had 8 years of drought - no real rain so the land is right to burn.
There is a cool change on the way - 6pm tonight is the estimate.
At the other end of the country we have this....
(this is in Far North Queensland.)
Today might be the day to share verse 2 of Dorothy Mackellar's poem - that a lot of Australians know...My Country.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!
Every now and then I think - "yep, this is my home and I love it." when I see the amazing natural disasters over the land.
Hope your day wasn't as hot.....
3 comments:
It's set to rain again here, and the humidity is extraordinary. It's like breathing through a steam shower.
I do love that verse, am so glad you shared it, it reminds of why I love my country. Thanks.
Its all quite appalling - the extremes!
And I have just heard about the discovery of the pocket of Victoria where many, many lives have been lost.So tragic.
Stay cool!
This morning's news of the dreadfully devastating fires and the loss of life is tragic and appalling. I grew up in Victoria, and remember many of the afflicted places, and am sick and sore at heart. Those poor, poor people, and so much human suffering!
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