Australia’s a huge country. The landmass is nearly the size of the mainland United States. We’ve got multiple weather systems running through our country.
It’s also Sub-tropical in the North. At the moment, it’s the “Wet Season”. Thunderstorm and rainy season, basically. It’s still warm up there, but there’s also a lot of storm weather moving through and keeping areas like Darwin and Far North Queensland slightly cooler than the rest of us.
But in general, you’re right. Melbourne is normally the second-coldest capital in Australia. It’s just that the specific freak heatwave we’re getting at the moment is concentrated over Victoria and South Australia
We were extremely fortunate here. Our house didn’t get affected, nor did either of our workplaces. And I take the tram to work (zero cancellations) and my husband car-pools. So the only affect that I saw was that the trams were fuller than usual, with presumed train-refugees.
In Queensland it is warm but very humid.
Sorry for the heat. Not too far from me is a disaster area caused by snow followed by thick ice that has coated the trees and brought them down on top of power lines. People have been without heat, electricity and in some cases food and running water for several days.
Hope you can get a bit of a breeze and a break sometime soon. Nashville had pleasant temperatures with highs around 50 degrees Farenheit today. Last week the lows were around zero. I like it.
I used to have an Aussie friend who was doing some post-doctoral work at Vanderbilt. He was from Canberra. I’ll never get over his saying that he washed his hands in a bison.
Oh well, if it helped to keep him cool…
If he’s washing his hands in a bison he deserves all that’s coming to him. 
What a hero.
Your micro-climate point is just as valid elsewhere in the world, Adelaide for example. I’m sure there are places in the area that are hotter than the recorded maximum, so what? Also hot days are not unusual in this part of the country and I reckon they probably had hot weather here before airconditioning was common so your amazing feats of coping with heat have likely been matched by many down here before. All this has very little to do with elderly people who, for whatever reason, make poor choices in the heat and die as a result.
On the topic of it being hotter further north, near the equator. The tropical areas tend to have their temperatures moderated by the monsoon winds that come off the (cooler) ocean. Some places on the north west coast have their 40 degree days in “spring” as the hot desert winds are still driving in from the land and the cooler sea breezes and monsoon haven’t got into gear yet.
I would not be interested to find out what said moron thought he or she was communicating in the OP.
Photos of the fire that has threatened Boolarra and Mirboo North during the last week. As always I am awed and grateful to the men and women who suit up and go out in 45 (110F) degree heat to risk their own safety and fight the fires.
Last I heard, the count was up to 30 homes destroyed 
I’m still waiting to hear from a former co-worker who lives in Boolarra and whose parents live in Mirboo North - her last Facebook update was posted on Friday and says she hopes she has a home to go back to.
Our family couldn’t co-ordinate Christmas lunch in a timely manner and the first date we were all available was today (Sunday Feb 1st… no rush). We were supposed to be having lunch at the Mirboo North Brewery Restaurant - they claim to be famous for their steak, but I fear they may be a little too well done at the moment. Two years ago our Christmas lunch plans had to be altered because of the fires at Rawson cutting off access to the place we had booked. I’m going to send out a family-wide email suggesting that the aunt, uncle or cousin who doesn’t want to come to “Christmas” lunch just send their regrets instead of burning down the town. 
That crossed my mind, and then I thought, “No. No way. Nobody could be that stupid.”
It’s the only explanation I could think of. I don’t suppose s/he will be back to enlighten us.
It must be very nice to live in a place where everyone knows how to deal with the heat/cold/extreme weather as a genetic memory, and need no training.
Where I live, people die every damn summer from the heat, and every damn winter from the cold. Sometimes, yes, it’s because they are homeless, poor or old. But sometime it’s because ordinary people don’t know how to deal with the weather they’re in. I guess I’m just Queen in the Land of Hte Dum.
I believe he was responding to this:
Which is simply ignorant.
Yeah, it’s kinda like saying “Residents of Buffalo, NY simply can’t handle snow.”
Yeah, but it is Wildfire. If there’s anyone out there who could be that stupid, it’s got to be him, right?
As an example of how this kind of thing (the deaths) can happen, my father in law recently had to tell his mentally vague mother to take off all the extra layers of clothes she was wearing. She was obviously hot but didn’t have the mental faculties to come up with a solution.
Guess you folks have never been to Nevada in the summertime, or Death Valley anytime. P.S. Wanna see burned homes? Come to California.
What the hell is this thread? A pissing-match to see who can lay claim to the greatest suffering? Good lord, pass me a Bex will you?
Fer’ fuck’s sake, yes, it’s been hot in Australia; not quite abnormally hot (we do get plenty of temps over 40 each summer in the south and west), but for some regions the ‘longest’ such heatwave (hot days without reprieve) since meteorological records began. We’ve had electricity blackouts, public transport has shat itself, and lots of people have suffered health effects and some have died as a result.
Yes, it gets very damned hot in Death Valley, and there are lots of bushfires in California. Nobody is denying either fact. There are also lots of bushfires in Australia, because we have lots of bush. Sometimes even, people are burned to death in such fires.
Can we just call it quits on the one-upmanship and get back to hanging-shit on Mister Wildfire for his iggerant OP?
Thanks.
PS, my aircon has cacked itself. I’m fucking grumpy. Deal with it, OK?
Snow White, is that you?
