After weeks of cool weather that was more like Autumn, even Winter, Mother Nature is finally turning up the heat…and has gone totally the other way!
For my readers who are shivering in freezing cold temperatures, in southern Australia we are now experiencing a heat wave with temperatures up into the 40s…Celsius! That is around 104 degrees in Fahrenheit!
Today, the city forecast is for 44C….it could hit 50C in some areas…
Its 1pm here and I just checked the temperature under our verandah…yep, that shows 46C…112F! And thats not even in the direct sun…
If you have never experienced a real Aussie summer’s day, the best way to describe it is that it’s like walking into a furnace….the dry heat hits you like a sledgehammer.
It is almost too hard to breathe…it’s stifling. When you go outside, its quiet…like everything is holding its breath till it cools down.
The once green lawns quickly brown off and becomes crunchy to walk on…. it’s hard to believe the grass will come alive again with the rain…if it ever rains again…
Plants once standing tall, start to droop, and some just can’t handle it and die.
Trees suddenly and sometimes violently drop branches…gum trees are notorious for doing this. Instead of just being shade providers, these trees will, without any warning, shed a branch.
Every summer it seems at least one falling branch claims a life….
Birds sit in the shade with their wings spread and their beaks wide open. We put out containers of water and make sure the bird baths are full.
The footpath is too hot to walk on in bare feet…the radiating heat creates a shimmer like a concrete desert.
When the strong northerly winds come through, it can becomes scary, even for those of us living in suburbia…..it makes conditions even more horrible.
If a hint of smoke is detected in the air, it creates a feeling of panic even for us in suburbia.
We don’t live in the bush, but the horrific scenes and the loss of life and property that occurred on Black Saturday in February 2009 are still so clear in our memories.
The nights can be the worst…when the temperature doesn’t drop below the high 20s.
Without aircon, sleep is hard to find as its like sleeping in an oven. Opening the window doesn’t help and seems to let more heat in then out….
But if you are one of the lucky ones who has air conditioning, then being inside becomes an oasis…got to love that blissfully cool air on days like this…as long as the power holds out……!!
News reports are now saying power companies are threatening outages…
Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE summer and I LOVE the heat!
I feel better when its warm for some reason…but 40C+ for days is even too much for me…..
Keep cool and stay safe everyone!