Yo-yo Weather

I know.

There was some doubt about another post on weather for the month of January.

There is no longer any doubt.

This is the January weather summary – not that anyone is interested. Discuss the weather and the inevitable happens. Eyes glaze over with boredom. The listener only wants to talk about their weather which is usually far more interesting, dramatic or nastier than yours.

The month started off with reasonable summer temperatures and then the yo-yo effect kicked in.

There is much to be said in favour of yo-yo weather. Days of relentless heat, without a break, are very wearing; a drop in the temperature, even if only for a day or two, is always welcome. It makes summer life more bearable.

I could attempt to describe, in excruciating detail, how the daily temperatures in January fluctuated but I will save you that pain.  Instead you can look at this lovely little graph which you will find far more interesting than me prattling on.

February may well bring a scorching day or two but January is now at its end.

Hurrah.

Flowers at Santa Fe Farmer's Market           September 2007

Whether I write about the weather again this month, is anybody's guess.

The weather is a perennial topic in Blogland. A weather post is sure to bring a spate of responses in the comment box and the result is often a summary of weather reports across the countryside.

The northern hemisphere winter is a force to be reckoned with – in North America there are immense falls of snow and the dreaded polar vortex sweeps down and freezes people’s socks off. People talk about bitterly cold temperatures and how they wish the snow would go away.

Across the way in the sometimes-United Kingdom, the same theme continues.  Bleak, chill days and thick ice on footpaths make walking out dangerous. Snow is forecast and makes travelling by road hazardous. A handful of people don’t mind the colder weather and walking about outside is fine with them, even if the temperature is on the low side.

And I sit here, in the heat of a southern hemisphere summer, and wonder whether I am living on the same planet.

         Eucalyptus trunk                      January 2005           

Recovery day

Yesterday was the hot day to end all hot days for this summer.

With the temperature set to top 40C I set my day up around the increasing temperature stages.

This means staying inside when the temperature passes 35C.

After that I spent my day sitting, reading or tapping away at the laptop with the fan keeping me cool.

The public had been warned about the possibility of rolling power outages because maintenance work was being carried out on generators in the Latrobe Valley and this meant a shortfall in the availability of power.  Perfect timing….

And so it came as no real surprise, when I was resting on the bed and reading, that the fan stopped and the lights on the digital clocks went out.   

I put my book down, closed my eyes and slept for a couple of hours.

Ten thousand homes and businesses were affected in a long strip, extending for many kilometres. It happened during the lunch hour and cafes could not make coffee, prepare food and the refrigeration units were not running, plus there was no air-conditioning.

There were a lot of unhappy people, and many of the cafes simply closed shop for the rest of the day.

The power was off for a couple of hours and when I woke from my sleep the digital clocks were flashing and the room was very warm.

Today was recovery day.

These very hot days totally sap my energy and today was spent doing as little as possible.

Bathurst Gardens       circa November 2006

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

Griping about the weather

So far this summer there have been only a handful of hot days where the temperature has topped 30C. I’ve been happy with this, one day at a time is easy to manage and recover from, though no doubt throngs of beach goers out there are griping about the lack of suitable weather for a skin-sizzle at the beach.

The media manages to make a big deal of hot weather, both before, during and after the event. Dire warnings are made about extremes of heat which may kill babies and old people; both ends of the age scale which have either not had time to build up their coping-with-heat mechanisms or at the other end where their coping-with-heat mechanisms have simply worn out and no longer deliver the required goods.

I had a conversation recently with an acquaintance and the talk moved swiftly to the topic of the hot weather we’ve endured this summer. When I ventured the opinion that the hot days, so far, hadn’t been too unbearable that idea was promptly squashed. 

I then listened to a blow by blow description of every unbearable minute of a recent unbearably hot day. Not only was it an unbearably hot day but there was a gathering at a pub to attend.Travel to and from was in an air-conditioned car and no self-respecting pub would be without cooling on any day of summer, never mind a hot one. You might think this would be a plus and make for some comfort. 

Not at all.

An opportunity to feel even more aggrieved about the weather must never be lost. In the griper’s car there is a temperature gauge and on the journey home this showed the outside temperature standing at 44.5C.   But was the temperature gauge accurate? It is a Korean car after all.  Maybe their temperature gauges are limited to a maximum reading.  Maybe it was even hotter and you wouldn’t know how much you were suffering.

Imagine that?

At this point I interrupted to say the thing which annoyed me most of all through this hot weather, was the constant talking about it. Articles in the paper and talk back radio never let up on the constant refrain of how terrible the weather will be and how will we cope with it.  I listen to the radio and all I want to do is shout ‘Shut up. Just shut up about the weather. Talking about it endlessly doesn’t make it more tolerable.’

There was a moment’s silence on the line, the conversation went on but it was a new subject.

So, there you have it. 

That’s my gripe for today; people who gripe incessantly about the weather.

Autumn

 This can’t be autumn! It’s way too hot – 29C. 

Summer is hanging on.  It is not going away any time soon. I noticed one or two nights ago the evening held a hint of the cooler nights that might be expected as autumn gets into stride but lately the days refuse to relinquish any of their heat.

We’ve had weeks of see-saw weather throughout the summer; one really hot day with a temperature over thirty Celsius, followed by a few days of much lower temperatures.  All this of course reduces the danger of fires, either bush or grass, which is always a good thing in summer.

From time to time there have been sudden heavy downpours of rain which keeps the grass green and growing.  Growing being the operative word.  Waiting at the tram stop, opposite the small park on the corner, it seems like the grass is on steroids. The gardeners come along,  cut the grass and in the blink of an eye it seems to have grown four inches.

No sign yet of any autumn colour in any of the trees and no cool weather forecast for the next week at least.

I will have to be patient.

Forum theatre back-lit by midday sun

Anti-cyclonic gloom and another year.

I seem to have started the year off on a gloomy note which is not intentional. 

The gloom is a few days of repetitive, grey, overcast skies, something I am not crazy about but I have to take it or leave it.  I am not the controller of the sky.  Anti-cyclonic gloom was something I was unfamiliar with until I spent some time in England years ago where I became well acquainted with this weather feature.

I’m more of a blue sky person, especially early in the day.  If it changes later then so be it; at least the start of the day holds a bright prospect.

And so it was under a gloomy grey sky that Neighbor Heather and I set off on our usual jaunt to breakfast out on New Year’s morning.  Our hotel choice this year would not be described as up-market but the food was fine; omelets made to order were a feature and the outlook across the road was towards one of our lovely Melbourne gardens. 

The day continued under anti-cyclonic gloom with the prospect of more food and the fun of waiting in front of a supermarket near one railway station while the person who was collecting me was waiting at another railway station.

I had ample time while I waited to survey the car park and the people and note that shorts were the clothing of choice for most women; that it was very easy for two large 4WD vehicles to reverse out of their parking spaces and collide; that people are lazy, untidy beggars (my paternal grandmother’s polite expression) who just dump all their rubbish on the ground outside the charity bins; that there is always someone who will stop and sift through said rubbish for some trophy; if you stand in one place for long enough the whole world will go by and happily that includes the people who were supposed to collect you an hour ago.

New Year’s Day lunch was on the back deck at The Lovely Pamm’s with old and new faces, lots to eat including pavlova and chocolate roulade and a variety of conversation.

And so 2017 gets under way.

Macarthur Square - Carlton.  Dec file photo

Grey skies

In the topsy-turvy weather we have had lately, another day of grey skies arrived and by mid-morning rain was coming down in no uncertain manner.  The rain would stop briefly and just when I decided it was the time to make a run for it, the rain pelted down again.

Gutters were awash with water and leaves and all the rubbish thrown down in the street accumulated and was caught in the grating where the gutters empty into the main drains.

Melbourne is often referred to the city where you will get all four seasons in one day; or if you don’t like the present weather just wait a while and it is sure to change.

Today it lived up to this reputation and by mid afternoon the clouds pulled apart and blue sky filled in the gaps;  with this change the wind arrived and blew everything in every direction.

Only a marginal improvement on the morning’s downpours. 

A welcome splash of colour on a grey, dull day