I read about tennis players in Australia vomiting due to heat stress and water bottles melting. Could our Australian dopers chime in and relate their stories about how the heat is affecting them. Meanwhile back in the U.S., the polar vortex that showed its ugly head a couple of weeks ago, is due to make another appearance. At least, I’ve got some warning to bundle up.
We had the cool change yesterday, so now it’s back to tolerable levels. In fact it’s actually a bit chilly.
But it was 40°C - 44°C for at least four days in a row, and the fifth (Monday) was getting up there too. This equates to 104°F - 110°F.
Imagine if you turned the bar heater on and set it on your desk, one foot away, facing you, and left it on for five days straight, heating up the room. If it was like that indoors, imagine what it would be like outdoors while playing professional level sport.
I live in a rural area which for at least two days last week had the highest temperatures in the state.
My Digital thermometer maxes out at 50 degrees and it maxed out on Friday afternoon.
So far the heat has killed a large number of my plants and left me with a whole of body heat rash - which has now resolved to just being my arms and legs. I don’ want to think about my electricity bill.
I drive into work but park about 10-15 minutes from my office. For 4 out of 5 days last week I paid $21.00 a day to park under the building I work in because there was no way in hell I was going to try and walk for 10-15 minutes in that heat.
My roll of gaffer tape melted together in the garage.
The pool evaporated about an inch a day during those 4 days.
We ran the (evaporative) air-conditioner 22 our of 24 hours during that week (it was a dry heat, so it worked well).
Some folks had blackout due to the state running out of electricity.
The garden is brown and dying, but hopefully the cooler weather and loads of watering this weekend will save most of the plants.
It was hot. Damn hot.
I’m in Melbourne, about 20km from the Australian Open sporting venue, and like others have said, it was bloody hot.
One of the advantages of living in this part of the country though is that we can virtually guarantee a cool change after x days of hot stuff. It blows in from the south-west, and like Friday evening just gone, the temp dropped 20C in as many minutes. As** GuanoLad** mentioned, it’s cool now…had my woolly socks and a cardigan on yesterday!
Collateral damage? My daphne, philodendrons and herbs were burnt to a crisp. A small fernery that was covered in TWO LAYERS of 70% shadecloth still managed to let in enough heat and light to fry all the new growth on my umbrella plant and a mothershield fern. The rest of the garden seems to have survived, but we’ll probably have more heatwaves in the next few weeks, so time will tell.
It only got to 44 here (max) during that time, and I can’t begin to imagine how madrabbitwoman managed to survive with temps over 50. Basically, the rules are, if you have any shopping or business to do, you do it before 8am or after 7pm at night. You only go out during those other hours if you absolutely have to! I was in the CBD on Thursday morning (had to), and it was dead-quiet…the only idiots out and about were those stupid tourist-types heading off to the Open. 
Not again! 
Much better now thanks, as others have said.
I live 26 km north of Melbourne and work in the eastern suburbs. Going out to get in the car at 5pm after it’s been parked in the sun all day is an adventure. It takes a good 5-10 minutes before the air con kicks in enough that I could actually hold the steering wheel properly.
The daytime heat didn’t bother me too much, but the night time was annoying when the temp doesn’t get below 25c (78 F) for 4 nights. My garden survived but I was outside every night after work watering. Worst thing from the heat was an an old freezer in the laundry couldn’t cope with the heat and a couple hundred bucks worth of frozen stuff thawed out to various degrees. Some is going to the dog and the rest in the bin, the old freezer goes to the shed and i bought a new one.
I’m currently about 8-k south of madrabbitwoman.
Last week had four days of above 44C in a row and it’s a much more pleasant mid 30s at the moment.
It’s dry heat so I’m ok provided there’s a bit of air movement e.g. a fan. Don’t need air-con but all bets are off when that humidity goes up and there’s no difference between the wet & dry bulb.
When forced to walk around the streets on Friday the road tar was coming away on your shoes. For one of the munchkins who was a bit slow damn near melted his thongs .
I notice on the news that a section of the tarred roadway at the crown of Melbourne’s Bolte Bridge has failed probably due to the cooler change after the protracted heat wave.
It’s hotter than a monkey’s bum, of course! 
Or as we Qld’ers call it, Summer.
Well that doesn’t translate to American English very well.
Well, extreme heat can result in inflammation of one’s nether regions.
and make them itchy!
Sounds like parts of Australia and parts of the SW US are similar in temperature to me.
Yes, it sounds rather like Dallas summer weather, except maybe cooler at night. It’s harder on people who aren’t accustomed to dealing with it, though. You can be active outside in it–if you’re crazy enough to want to be–but you have to know the warning signs of heat exhaustion and be prepared to respond to them immediately.
It’s so hot I saw an abo chasing a 'roo – and they were both walking! [rimshot]
Just a heads-up BrainGlutton, but using the term abo is akin to describing an African-American as a nigger.
And like nigger, abo was commonly used for many generations by all folk, but is now only heard in bog-stupid, ignorant or racist/white supremacist circles.
You can still use roo though.
How about “dingo chasing a roo.” I think the original version is “I saw a dog chasing a cat, and they were both walking!”