obligatory Oils link
*
The temperature in the shade had reached 110 again…*
I’ve always boggled at the use of Fahrenheit in that song.
The western desert lives & breathes in 45 degrees.
That seems more modern, yes?
Welll…kinda. But that’s a bit exaggerated.
Here in Melbourne, although 45C is way extreme, we’d get high 30’s temperatures every summer. In Adelaide they would likely have over 40 for a few days each year. So we’re a little behind CA in the summer temp stakes, but not enourmously so. We have some idea of how to cope with hot, though not necessarily this hot.
But…
Some of the worst offenders for doing to much in the sun are immigrants from Europe, and they really do have no idea how important it is to drink lots and do less. Also, there’s old folks who don’t really get Celcius, so 45 doesn’t sound hot, even if they know intellectually that it’s so, and they don’t take any more precautions than they would for 35. It’s not so much old Dottie sitting in her darkened house without aircon, it’s her neighbor old Bessie who says to herself “well when I was a lass we didn’t have this fancy new-fangled aircon and we were fine” and tries to do a full days gardening, forgetting that she’s not 20 any more. Also, macho types like kambukta’s kid with an “I can take it” mentality.
Also…
Yes, building and vehicle designers these days assume aircon. We no way had no-open windows in the 70’s. Every time I pass a modern building with no eaves, no verandahs and big-ass north-facing picture windows without so much as an exernal blind to keep the sun off I want to thump an architect. I suspect that as green concerns become more prevalent that won’t fly any more and they will get torn down in droves, but at the moment it’s way fashionable.
I don’t understand who the OP is pitting and why at all. Are you pitting the Australian authorities quoted in your OP? (and failed to provide a link to the quote’s source) Are you pitting the 20 people who died? Or are you just pitting Australians in general?
How does knowing which season it is have anything to do with dying from the heat? I don’t know the details surrounding the deaths, but I’m willing to wager those people knew it was summer.
Sorry, but the highest recorded temp in Sacramento was 115 F. Cite. The average in the summer is low 90s.
That’s still damn hot, but we’re talking about almost a week of unbearable heat down under. Add to that wildfires and outages and it’s not surprising some old folks are having serious problems.
Another problem being encountered is that public housing in Victoria doesn’t come with airconditioning as a standard installation. If you want it, you install it at your own cost. A fan does nothing except circulate already hot air around a room. I don’t think too many people who live in public housing are about to install a split system if they already live in public housing, and that’s a fact. The elderly and the young are most at risk. I have an aunt whose electricity we (we split it amongst 5 of us) pay over the summer quarter because she’s afraid to run her airconditioner because she’s a pensioner.
Aspidistra - how did you cope with the blackouts? The media is reporting that it threw our capital into chaos.
I’m also not seeing the point of this pitting.
Are you suggesting that the deaths were caused by either a national or individual ignorance of what season it is or by a failure to notice that, hey, it’s really hot?
If so, Fuck Americans
Fuck Europe and especially France
Or is this a (somewhat poor taste) weather-envy pitting because it’s cold where you are?
All I know is I’m jonesing for some Australian women now.
The OP is a certified moron. Does that set things straight for you?
That is the greatest load of shit I have ever read on this board.
I thought the OP was just trying to make a Joke of Australians suffering from a Heat wave while it’s Wintertime (for us in the Northern Hemi).
I would say it’s simply incredible ignorance.
Now, can we please get back to the fucking Australians!
Well, I certainly can’t disagree with you there. I would nevertheless be interested to find out what said moron thought he or she was communicating in the OP.
I think the OP seriously does not know that when it is winter in North America, it is summer in Australia.
What agency does this certification?
Their work is far from complete.
Ahh! So much cooler here today thank goodness! The fires have been far too close to several local towns and I read earlier that 27 houses have been lost. The major power lines that carry supplies to 75% of the state (including Melbourne) were under threat yesterday, but with the change in the weather apparently the fire is being held within containment lines now. Thankfully the fires haven’t claimed any lives so far… let’s hope that holds.
In case it wasn’t already clear, Australia is generally a hot country and most Australians are used to having some hot days. It’s not so much that it is hot at the moment, but rather that it’s been hot for a long time now and the electricity supply isn’t coping hence the rolling blackouts. I’ve just come back from a trip to Darwin (in the tropics) and although Darwin was only 30-33 deg C, I found it to be a lot less comfortable than Adelaide’s 43 deg C because of the high humidity.
Anyway, today isn’t too bad, just 37 C at the moment and we’ve been out from this morning till the early afternoon.
I had thought that part of the answer may be that in the past deaths weren’t attributed to heatwaves. I came across this which apart from disproving my assumption contains some interesting facts.
In Australia during the 20th Century, heatwaves have caused more deaths than any other natural hazard (except disease)…
*It was in 1900 when a hurricane killed 6,000 in Galveston, Texas, an event often ranked as America’s worst natural disaster. Yet the very next year, in July, a heatwave in the mid-west ultimately cost 9,508 lives. *
Los Angeles region heatwaves resulted in 546 deaths in 1939, 946 in 1955 and 580 again in 1963. Thus, each of these little-remembered events killed more people than the very famous San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906, which took 452 lives.
*The 1939, ‘Black Friday’ bushfires, which swept Victoria killing 71 people, are far more easily recalled than the accompanying heatwave which claimed 438 lives and directly contributed to the holocaust of that fateful January. *
Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the fact that A) the official recorded temperature is always recorded in a very specific location, which does not rule out other microclimes nearby having different temperatures which can be recorded quite accurately by instruments that aren’t official weather service stations, and B) I didn’t spend every minute of those 35 years within Sacramento city limits. The 125F temp I handled wasn’t in Sacramento–in fact, that was outside of Redding back in the mid '70s and that’s what the radio reported the high temp as being. I’ve also been to Death Valley in midsummer–take a gander at what kind of temps are common around there. Sacramento averages something like 75 days per year over 90 F and I’ve experienced one to two week periods with daily temperatures in excess of 100 F quite often. All nitpicking aside, I can tell you that I have way more than the average person’s experience with extremely hot weather and I know what the hell I’m talking about–you’re cordially invited to take your snippy little wiki link and place it where it will do you the most good.
Oh yeah, and they used to be allowed to burn the gigantic rice fields surrounding Sacto in late summer too–try 90+ degrees along with inversions of silica laden smoke reducing visibility to less than a city block. It’s a wonder I have lungs left.
Does all that heat turn you into cranky little bitches up there?
Look, we’re all very impressed with your (and your family’s) ability to withstand massive heat waves while barely breaking a sweat. And I’m sure Aussies must just be big pussies when it comes to heat, cause of course they know very little about surviving in harsh conditions. :rolleyes:
I suggest you jump on the first plane and head down under so that you can educate all the silly Aussies dying from the heat. But I’m guessing you wouldn’t last 5 minutes in a pub down here.
Something I’m not comprehending . . . if the heat wave is in the southeast of Australia, wouldn’t it be even hotter in the north, nearer to the equator?