IT was Dorothea MacKellar who wrote she loved a sunburnt country.
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I wonder what she would think this summer? Things are much more than sunburnt, we’re scorched.
The grass in my backyard shatters when you walk on it.
There were days last month when Australia was the hottest place on the planet, even warmer than the Sahara desert.
Our neighbours to the south were hit the hardest with temperatures reaching 46°C.
We saw fires starting, power cuts, low water pressure and a massive strain on the health system with an influx of heat affecting new patients In Melbourne they had train tracks buckle, crippling the public transport system, and who can forget watching the tennis this year? Let’s hope the Open organisers are rethinking the idea of playing in the blazing sun, with temps in the mid 40s.
I don’t really want to watch hallucinating and collapsing players, I might as well watch Italian football if I want to see that.
The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted some more intense heat this weekend.
I’m sure the whole town is wishing for those icy winter winds again.
Heat waves are getting longer and meaner.
Statistics coming from Victoria are reporting that 100 people died in the heatwave in January that was just four days long - all from heat related illnesses.
Nationwide, the average is 1000 people a year die due to heat waves.
Did you find that a surprising statistic? I did. I looked into the stats and found another shocker; 50,000 died in Russia due to the heat in 2010.
I hadn’t really connected Russia with heat waves, and that cost the country 15 billion in economic losses.
If this is a sign of things to come it is a real worry, and I wonder if it is time to start looking at our infrastructure.
Which is going to be a big hurdle, and we have a climate change denying PM in office.
A recent report from the Climate Council, which is lucky to still exist as its former incarnation as a Commission got dumped in September, says that we have had three times the hot day records when compared to cold day ones.
I thought winter felt shorter.
I love winter in Goulburn, and I really can’t wait to be rugged up again and getting a whole night’s sleep.
I feel like I’m burning to a crisp every moment I’m in the sunlight, but that’s not surprising for a red head.
Winter is made for redheads.
We get to let our skin breath after it has spent six months covered in SPF1000+, and our friends get to see what we look like as we’ve been wearing big hats and sunglasses for so long they’ve forgotten.
All those jobs we’ve been putting off outside will finally get done in winter, because doing them in summer means risking spontaneous combustion.
Even a trip to the beach is hideous, I swim in a 1920s style onesie.
I’m very ready for the heat to pack up and head north, I hear Boston could use a thaw.