Record Heatwave. 19 going Wildfires

Victoria Australia.
Record temperatures have come to the state of Victoria. The capital city of Melbourne was 46 ºC = 114.8 ºF today 02/07/09
Avolon airport 20miles SW of Melbourne recorded 47.6 ºC = 117.68 ºF

Wildfires are scattered throughout the state. SEE LINKS

http://www.metric-conversions.org/temperature/celsius-to-fahrenheit...

National Parks incident address
http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/DSE/nrenfoe.nsf/LinkView/519C51D981DAE41F...

State fire services address
http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/incidents/incident_summary.htm

Weather
http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/vic/forecasts.shtml

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Permalink Reply by Tony P on January 26, 2009 at 7:16am
No need to worry Wildfire, I'll keep them posted. Unless I'm out there of course... I'm listed for regional Strike Team tomorrow, not long-range.

It's not just the forecast for the next five days that has us on stand-by, it's the fine and warm/hot weather we've had for the past month that has finished the drying out of the State. We'll see. Often when the conditions look the worst - no, I won't say it as Murphy is probably listening!
Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on January 26, 2009 at 7:31am
Hmmm...you have a serious problem....Pardon me if your situation escapes me at this time....it is minus 20 degrees here.....I just did the old experiment for my daughter....I took a cup of boiling water and threw it up into the air....it froze and settled as a fog....never hit the ground.....LOL.....Paul
Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on January 26, 2009 at 7:42am
We aren't quite at -20. I woke up this morning to a balmy heat wave of 6 degrees F. We have about 5 inches of snow left over from the storm 2 weeks ago still on the ground. Oh did I mention we have another snowstorm coming on Wednesday? Good luck
Permalink Reply by Tony P on January 26, 2009 at 8:34pm
It's interesting when we talk about temperature, because it's all relative. Relative to what we're used to! What Wildfire has posted is to us bloody hot, yet to the communities in the north west of Western Australia, they are quite normal temperatures - hot to them is when it gets into the 50's. Or over 120F. Now that is HOT.

Here in Melbourne we roast when we get our 40 degree days, we think it's cold when it get's down to zero in the winter - zero Celsius, 32 F. Not cold at all to a lot of people in North America! Places like New York get me, they get as hot as us in the summer and snow in winter - no thanks, you can keep that white stuff!
Permalink Reply by Tony P on January 29, 2009 at 5:51pm
I promised to keep this going.

Not that interesting really though. Yes, the heat wave hit and is still going. Temp in the low to mid 40's (Celsius of course) Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and expected again today. Hot. Yesterday when my car was telling me the outside temp was 44.5 (alright, 112F) I saw that there was some emergency roadwork going on on one of the main roads through the suburb. The bitumen had melted.

Today is the third day in a row with a Total Fire Ban for the whole State - not even a BBQ can be lit outside. The contractor who was doing grinding outside near some powerlines has some explaining to to do. As have a few other people . In court.

Fires? Yes. All over the State, mostly being jumped on quickly and being stopped. One that's been going for a couple of days had 56 vehicles listed as committed this morning. Hopefully it'll be stopped today.
Permalink Reply by lutan1 on January 29, 2009 at 5:58pm
My cer temp was reading as 49C on the Monash freeway!!!!

Don't know how accurate it is, but with radiant heat, etc, I reckon it'd be pretty damn close!

My wife and I were also talking about the Australian Open- there surely must come a time when they say it's too hot! In these temps, they're potentially doing some serious damage to the muscles and bodies....
Permalink Reply by Tony P on January 30, 2009 at 12:25am
They do - the roof was closed yesterday afternoon. Probably today also, but I haven't watched any tennis today.
Permalink Reply by Tony P on January 30, 2009 at 12:34am
It's an interesting period. The State is tinder-dry and ready to burn. February is upon us and it is the hottest and driest month of the year for Victoria and South Australia. Other States are experiencing fires as well, but my atention is pretty well focused here.

A couple of fires causing trouble in New South Wales:
http://www.bushfire.nsw.gov.au/dsp_content.cfm?CAT_ID=684


Today I've been on stand-by for Strike Team duty, we rotate that around all the available members of the Brigade. Another day of Total Fire Ban has just been declared for tomorrow. Though the forecast is for a cooler day - only 37C.
Permalink Reply by lutan1 on January 30, 2009 at 4:37am
For those interested, there's constant updates of all the incidents around Victoria at this link
http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/incidents/incident_summary.htm

Be sure to refresh it often.

At the time of posting this link, there;s two major ones:
Delburn with 110 appliances in attendance



Endeavour Hills with 69 appliances in attendance.


The intersting and scary thing about the Endeavour Hills one is that it's pretty much a small city with this massive fire burning- the area would be loaded with people totally unprepared for such an incident, they live in the city and it can't happen to them sort of attitudes.....
Permalink Reply by Tony P on January 30, 2009 at 6:52am
The Delburn Complex is now spotting north east. It's in fairly rugged country, and is spotting several kilometres. Not nice. The fire has burned approximately 4500 hectares (over 11,000 acres) and is now heading in the direction of the main power generating area of the State.

The Endeavour Hills fire is now listed as contained. Blacking out continuing overnight. As Luke said, this fire is a shock for the local residents, they live well within the suburbs. The fire was heading south east, towards the golf course and over it to the housing. The houses there are all relatively new - which measn light weight frame and truss construction. This could have been nasty.

Tomorrow is expected to be another bad fire-weather day. We can expect more resources to be heading out. As it's the weekend, there will be more volunteers available. Which is good.
Permalink Reply by Dennis Brown on January 30, 2009 at 7:36am
HEAT WAVE send some over here lol hope you have a safe one
Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on January 30, 2009 at 9:01am
5 inches....OMG Engine how do you deal with all that.....?? LOL...According to the National weather service SO FAR...this year we are right at 170 inches of snow for the season...and as I speak it is still coming down....Heard a good one the other night on the news...some guy was being interviewed and he made a comment about the snow....stated "Snow in New York is like a honey moon....you know you are going to get some....you just don't know how much..."Stay safe and always Keep the Faith.....Paul.....PS it has warmed up here....a whole 17 degrees.....shirt sleeve weather.....lol

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