Melbourne, Australia expecting worst heatwave in 100years this week! (5 days over 105F)

G'day all,

thought Id share this with you. Melbourne Australia is expecting its worst heatwave in over 100years this week, starting today with 38 degrees celcius (100.4 Fahrenheit) and the rest of the week is going to be 40 and 41 degrees forecast (106 degrees fahrenheit)

I personally do not subscribe to the global warming theory even thou it is a bit freaky with this heat we are expecting for so long. I do beleive the weather patterns are changing around the world and this is just one of them.

www.news.com.au...

VICTORIA is facing its worst heatwave in a century, with firefighters, rail operators and power companies on red alert.

The extreme heat starts on Tuesday with a forecast top of 38C for Melbourne followed by four days of 40C-plus.

The mercury is expected to crash through 40C every day this week in regional centres including Mildura, Shepparton and Bendigo.

Swan Hill is expected to sizzle for five days over 42C.

Weather bureau senior forecaster Terry Ryan said Melbourne had not endured four straight days over 40C since 1908.

"It is the worst heatwave most will have lived through," he said yesterday.

"Everyone needs to drink water, look after themselves and their animals."

The Country Fire Authority's 1200 brigades are on high alert.

"The conditions are right for a fairly major type fire event," CFA duty officer Gregg Paterson said.

"The state of the fuel across Victoria is very, very dry, so we're going to get fires occurring with this sort of heat."

Power companies and public transport are bracing for breakdowns.

Connex spokesman John Rees said extra buses and work crews were on standby around the network.

Forecaster Terry Ryan said the heatwave could easily be one for the record books.

"We had three days in a row above 40 in 1959 in January," he said. "The next one was five days above 40 in 1908, so it would be the longest stretch of hot weather in January in 100 years.

"A lot of people think February is hotter but the biggest heatwaves are in January and over the 150-year record there's been twice as many 40s in January as there are in February."

Melbourne is on track for its second driest January after receiving just 0.8mm of rainfall. The lowest was 0.3mm in 1932.

Everybody is expecting the worst, especially if a bushfire breaks out. The State of Victoria is very very dry and it would not take much for bushfires to rage out of control this week with the tempritures expected.

Funny how the weather works, December was probably one of the coldest starts to summer I can remember.

[edit on 26/1/09 by Melbourne_Militia]

This has always confused me and I try to ask people but they don't seem to understand.

How is this proof of anything like Global Warming if it happened 50 years ago and 51 years again before that? I'm confused.

I'm in Melbourne BTW, really not looking forward to this weather. I made sure to get up early (9:00am) to buy cigarettes so I didn't have to do it when it was hot.

[edit on 26/1/09 by Nventual]

Originally posted by Nventual
This has always confused me and I try to ask people but they don't seem to understand.

How is this proof of anything like Global Warming if it happened 50 years ago and 51 years again before that? I'm confused.

I'm in Melbourne BTW, really not looking forward to this weather. I made sure to get up early (9:00am) to buy cigarettes so I didn't have to do it when it was hot.

[edit on 26/1/09 by Nventual]

Yeah good point.
The globe is getting warmer and the sun is getting hotter at the moment.
But if this happened before we even had electricity spewing out greenhouse gases on this earth.
And before any modern industry.
Then what does that say?
It says it happens no matter what we do.
Global warming is happening I can feel it myself over the past few years.
But I doubt its human beings causing it.
However it is very profitable for them to say its Human Beings causing it.

Is indeed profitable.
I know that when my toast burns I don't go around blaming the toast for it, I blame the toaster. Is it not the sun getting brighter that's doing this?

Good luck to everyone in Melbourne and surrounding areas.

I have ginger hair and know I couldn't cope with such temps.

Keep drinking water and keep an eye out for grandma / grandpa and tiddles.

Also, for non-AU people, it isn't like these temperatures are unusual it's just that they're consecutive for 5 days which personally I think is a great accomplishment in Melbourne - for the weather to stay consecutive and predictable for more than a day.

Thats odd, here in Dallas, Texas were expecting "the worst ice storm in the last few years"
and yes, I said DALLAS TEXAS

Originally posted by Nventual
Is indeed profitable.
I know that when my toast burns I don't go around blaming the toast for it, I blame the toaster. Is it not the sun getting brighter that's doing this?

I definitely think that's the case even though SOHO hasn't really mentioned recording any differences in the Sun (other than the complete lack of solar activity whatsoever -- sunspots, flares, etc. It most notably seems weeker according to the data). I think it's the Sun but also coupled with changes in both the Sun's heliosphere and the Earth's magnetosphere.

Although I'm no scientist, I am a photographer, which makes me more aware of the Sun's actual colour temperature. The colour temp of sunlight around midday on clear days is alot more blue than it used to be.

When I was first studying photography 10 years ago (when film was standard), the colour temp for the Sun was set as an orange/white (and film was set at around 5600 Kelvin). It was an unchanging amount, however I find that my outdoor white balance settings aren't up to the task anymore - the result is noticeably blue. I think people are using auto white balance more, and so it compensates for the minute changes in light coming from the sun. Anyway, if people were still shooting film, I think there would be more talk about this as standard daylight film would be coming out more blue than it was originally designed to.

(more on colour temps here): en.wikipedia.org...

I'm surprised that this hasn't been mentioned officially in the photographic & scientific realms, rather than in just passing conversation.

Another thing about the hot weather in Australia - here in Sydney hasn't been much better. Last week we also had quite a few consecutive days with temps above 40, and the week before we had one day where the highest temp out west was just over 48C (118F), and that was humid heat as well. Freakin' unbearable.

[edit on 26/1/09 by Evasius]

We have had heatwaves like this in Sydney before and I totally sympathise
with all the people in Melbourne.

We keep a barometer outside under cover in our entertaining area and it hit 42 on the NSW Central Coast last Saturday although the weather report on the news said it only reached 38. The humidity was extreme as well.

Today (and yesterday) in Sydney it is expected to reach only 25 but it is overcast and there is a foggy, misty kind of rain. We will not see high temps again this week but the weather man has been wrong before.


I would hate to be a player in the Australian Open today

stay cool and safe
res

No wonder its so freakin cold here in Canada this week.
You guys are hoggin all the heat!!
Why don't you be nice and share just a little of it?

I'm so jealous. I sure do hope that this means we will have a hot summer up here if and when it ever does get here this year.

After all what goes around usually does come around.

anway, be safe ..

Ahh see this is almost a real heatwave!

I spent a year in the middle of nowhere where the temps were at least 45 degrees for a good month, this was considered normal lol.

Air conditioning is a godsend in a place like that.


As said keep the water up!

Sympathise with melbournians!

It is a scorcher i feel like im in an oven in Australia its not normal but people here love it.

[edit on 26-1-2009 by meadowfairy]

Originally posted by Nventual

How is this proof of anything like Global Warming if it happened 50 years ago and 51 years again before that? I'm confused.

It's not proof of global warming. It's not even proof of regional climate change. No single weather event or sequence of events of proof of anything other than that weather happens.

However, it's predicted that global warming will lead to such heatwaves becoming more common and more extreme. So if such heatwaves do become more common and more extreme than we have some validation to the theory.

I'm a bit if-ish about global warming.
Is it `actually` global warming or are these just natural earthly changes that our environment is going through?? You know, like a natural cycle?

I might need to study up but it's all a bit hyped isn't it??

Try living in the North west for 18 years and having only 2 seasons summer and winter...Its hot work up north and you drink like a fish...

I can tell you right now that a 45 in Melbourne is nothing like a 45 up North in W.A ...so take a teaspoon of cement and harden up

Originally posted by duffster
I can tell you right now that a 45 in Melbourne is nothing like a 45 up North in W.A ...so take a teaspoon of cement and harden up

The humidity up here in the tropics can absolutely kill at times, i swear.. and that's all year round, bar select few days throughout winter
I guess the one thing I'm worried about is the last time down south had big heat waves, we ended up with torrential rain and major flooding in central north Queensland. . .

we've had the Air con on non stop since 7:30, stuff global warming and the environment, I'm boiling.
perfect weather for those who have a swimming pool.

At home we have a power outage. The TV and some of the lights work but our fridges and aircon dont work because there isn't enough power. The power went out yesterday.

My business is dead at the moment too. No one's out on Brunswick St they're all out at St Kilda. So that sucks too.

The weather is ruining my life.

We've got ours on 24/7 the last few days. This heat sucks.

We usually get 40+ days in the summer, but once it goes for 3-4 days, you just have enough of it. But to see 40+ for a week or so straight in Melbourne is bizzare. It's usually a bit cooler there than here.

yer it usually cools down after a day or so. the worst part about this is that its to hot to get a good nights sleep