Hotter'n'hotter

The real summer weather – with higher temperatures – has arrived at last. Here in Marvellous Melbourne we are in for a week of temperatures of 30+C.

This is the summer climate we live in and there will people who will relish the idea of really hot weather.  I am just not one of them. People living along the coast and around the Bay will feel the benefit of cool breezes off the water. Those living to the north of the city will not benefit from any cooling breezes. No relief on those flat northern plains, now packed with shoulder to shoulder housing and very little greenery to relieve the heat.

Move out of the city and cross The Great Dividing Range and the true meaning of hotter weather kicks in. Northern Victorian temperatures mean business in the summer time, they’re not for the faint-hearted.  In the far north-west corner of the state, across the Murray River from New South Wales and an hour or so by car from the SA border, Mildura has punishing summer days.

As I write this, I recall years ago, when Marble Bar in Western Australia grabbed attention in a small space in a column in the east coast papers for a recorded a temperature of 50C. I was absolutely disbelieving and could not imagine anywhere in Australia could be as hot as Marble Bar. 

The accuracy of that report might be disputed today, what with the overload of information on the internet. 

However, Marble Bar does have official claim to 160 consecutive days of 37.8C (100F) and above, from 31 October 1923 to 7 April 1924, setting a world record.

And how hot was it in Marble Bar yesterday?  A fairly standard 45.3C…

It makes our weather here seem positively mild and balmy by comparison.  

Marble Bar township                                       courtesy unknown photographer