Australian Bushfire Updates

I'm going to give you the link for the latest news stories of the fires that are raging through the Land of Aus:

click here for updated stories

Now then, I'm going to be paraphrasing a few of those stories. Please excuse my brevity or lack or writing skills as I'm not exactly in the mood to be eloquent tonight (it's Wednesday evening down here as I type).

The "toll" was up to 183 this morning, it's expected to be over 300 soon...

Thousands of families have lost everything. For many there was basically no warning.

Why wasn't there a warning? Well, a "normal" bushfire will "spot" itself up to 1 to 1.5 kilometres away from the front. Spotting refers to the fire's ability to toss embers up and ignite other brush. These suckers were spotting up to 15 kilometres (10 miles) away from the front.

Ummmmmmm, that's bad. Really bad.

The fires over Saturday night in Victoria (there are many still burning and NSW countryside is going up) released enough energy to supply the state of Victoria for 2 years. In one night...

Take the energy released from the atomic bomb that the USA dropped on the civilians of Hiroshima and multiply that by 500. That's how much power was released onto the folks in the Victorian countryside in one night.

Did you know that Eucalypt oil is explosive when vaporised? And that it can vaporise at fairly low temps. The temps were record heat wave highs for a couple of weeks beforehand, and then on the day it was 120 F in the shade.

Sooooooo, an ember from a fire 10 MILES AWAY FROM A TOWN drops onto the trees in the town... The trees are gum trees of course (eucalyptus). The trees explode instantly and the entire town is burning with absolutely no warning.

Is it any wonder the Aussie PM calls any arsonist mass murders? Is it any wonder that many of the fire chiefs use the word "terrorism" to describe the fire bugs?

How hot did the fires get? Well, normal bushfires don't melt metal:




If you want to read about the science of these fires and why they are way beyond what any firefighter from any country has ever seen, the click

this link

BTW, I've already let the writer of the article, Alice Coster of the Herald Sun, know that I object to her use of "a perfect firestorm" to describe the fires. I don't think anyone who lost their homes would think of it as "perfect".


But, there's some good news! Aussies really help each other out in a crisis. The international cricket match between Aus and NZ raised $6,023,643 throughout the match. I'm damned impressed!

If you want to read a story about two REAL heroes (not sportsblokes), then read this:

Brave Blokes

I'm sure everyone heard about the firefighter who stopped to help a koala. Here's a pic if him giving "Sam" a drink.




Sam was taken to a wildlife shelter, and it turns out Sam is Samantha! Her paws are bandaged up, she's got a koala bloke at the shelter who likes her, and she should be ready to be released back into the wild in 5 months.

Australian Bushfires 2009

Well... the bad news keeps pouring in. Now NSW has massive fires along with all the ones still burning out of control in VIC.

Gee, don't forget about the massive flooding up in QLD.

Sigh.

This post will be a bit disjointed today. I've been trying to keep up with the news and have a great many links and info for you all, but there are times (like as I type this) that I have to take a break and cry.

About every 30 minutes the death toll is updated from Victoria (VIC). I think right now it's at 135. Several small towns have disappeared.

Before ANYONE puts in a comment about folks not having a fire plan or living in a bushfire prone area, let me say a couple a things.

Firstly, all my regular commenters will give you the smackdown of your life.

Nextly, these are folks and towns that have fire plans and have weathered untold numbers of fires of the years. Leave early or stay and defend (with a proper plan and fire-proofing stuff ready) has worked for decades for these people.

There are old veteran bushfire fighters from not only Aus but around the globe (we're all in this together!) who say they've never seen anything like this. The speed, the heat, etc. Yes, this includes fighters who regularly battle fires flamed by the US Californian Santa Ana winds.

Well, here's a few links about that while I go blow my nose... I'll be back.

Armageddon

No warning

I saw one story where a fire started 1.5 km from a town and within 5 minutes the town was an inferno.

Fire falling from the sky, burning embers from trees that exploded over 12 km away, mini fire tornados spring up... shit...

This all happened in the space of just a few hours over our Saturday night. Fire crews had been on alert just waiting for what one (asshole) news commentator dubbed "The Perfect Firestorm," but there wasn't much they could do.

I'd heard reports of over 10,000 CFA fighters working to contain untold number of blazes. South Aus sent over a contigent of our CFS guys along with Elvis. Elvis is out big ole Erickson Sky Crane helicopter that can dump a lot of water quickly. We couldn't spare much more as we've got our own fires.

A doctor at the Alfred Hospital said this is worse than he saw when he treated the Bali bombing victims:

Alfred Hospital

Oh, and they've just run out of morphine...

Offers of help and aid have been coming in from around the world, notable from the Commomwealth countries, of course.

UK Prime Minister

And I do believe the Kiwis have just asked what they can do. Apparantly the smoke made it all the way over there and that's never happened from our fires before.

Just because the weather has cooled off a bit, doesn't mean the fires are out. There's no rain. Victoria has had a ten year (I think) drought and I think South Aus is in year number 6. Many towns have just now been placed on alert:

Fire Alert

So, like what are Aussies and the govmint doin'? LOTS!

Sunday morning (immediately after the major firestorm started) ole Kevin Rudd (yes, our PM is Krudd) pledged a $10M dollar Community Relief Fund. The Victorian State Premier (think Governor for those of you in the US) added $2M and the Fed (Krudd) matched that.

Krudd then mobilised the Army to help not only with fire fighting but also with logistical and transport help for all the aid pouring in, and also with loads of heavy equipment for clearing roads, debris. No need to dig firebreaks or trenches down here, these fires jump them without a second thought.

Cricket Australia and Channel Nine announced that the upcoming international match between the Aussies and the Kiwis will be for charity. That includes gate money, ad revenue, concessions, etc.

Commonwealth Bank kicked off the cricket drive with $1M. Then all the major Australian banks each kicked in $1M apiece. I do believe Wesfarmers has just kicked in $500,000 today too.

Just got word that News Limited (they own the Sydney Morning Herald) just kicked in $1M.

As of 3:30 this afternoon individual aussies had already donated $5.6M

The Aussie Red Cross is keeping track of all this, and every single cent is going to relief and help, not a thin dime to their admin; very cool and good on 'em!

What's cool is not only can you help online, but you can stroll into any Bunnings Hardware Store to make a donation, or saunter into any of these banks to help too: NAB, ANZ, Westpac or Commonwealth Bank branch.

If you are overseas and want to help, then just go here:

Victorian Bushfire Appeal 2009

I urge any Alaskan NOT to make a donation though until they have sent one flat rate box to the Y-K Delta Villages:

Nunam Iqua Food Drive
c/o Ann Strongheart
P.O. Box 7
Nunam Iqua, AK 99666
nunamiquayouth@yahoo.com

cus them folks are hard up and the Governor of Alaska isn't doing squat to help them!




If you want to keep up with the fires and where they are at, both Google and Aus-emaps have come to the rescue. Aus-emaps is pretty slow though but they do cover the whole continent...

Google VIC fires

Aus-emaps fires

And if you want to keep up with the news:

Lotsa news stories

For those of you who like tales of grief...

Bad news

Well, I'm off to make dinner... hopefully it'll be good but my mind sure ain't gonna be on cooking.

Adelaide's Deadly Heat Wave of 2009

I'll be serious today.

Yes, yes... you may now pick your collective selves up off the floor and close your collective jaws.

The forecast for today is 110 F in the shade. Officially it's 107 in the shade. At the ole homestead it's only 103 in the shade and a cool 137 F in the sun.

Last years heat wave was a record, and so is this years FIRST heat wave (we've got two more months of possible hot weather). The other day we had SA's third hottest day ever after having the hottest night ever.

Fun... NOT!

People are dying. Elderly and homeless are the hardest hit --isn't that always the case? Modern western society kinda sucks at taking care of those not able to take care of themselves, eh?

The morgue, which is generally less than 1/3 full, is maxed out. They've had to bring in some refrigerated freight containers for the bodies pending autopsies.

The major hospitals have all got together and declared that all non-emergency elective surgery is halted. All docs and nurses who would've been working on those surgeries are assigned to emergency services and ambulances.

I'm not making this up!! The official "count" is at 75, but I'm guessing you could add a "1" in front of that.

Why? Well it kinda costs a wee bit to run the ole a/c after the electricity was privatized (ETSA is now owned and ran from Hong Kong, BTW) quite a few years ago. And if you can't afford to run your a/c, then you do without.

I'm not sure why there is a drastic difference in the apparant heat between here and say... Austin, Texas on a hot day. I've walked around downtown Austin every afternoon for a week in a heat wave. I can tell you that IT'S A LOT HOTTER down here even though the official temps are the same!

On a hot day last week I put the temp sensor in the sun and left the screen in the shade. Keep in mind that this temp gauge in the shade is pretty much spot on with the "official" shade temp. Here's what I got:


Just ignore the humidity reading as I never bothered to calibrate that feature.

What's that you say? You can't read what the temp was at 2:03 in the arvo? Let's just zoom in a wee bit:


Up in Kotzebue, Alaska it was -37 F the other day; not as cold as the Interior but still bloody cold!! The windchill, however, was -64 F.

Hmmmmm, the temp diff between OTZ's windchill and South Oz's sun temp was 209 F on pretty much the same day. Funny ole world, ain't it?

It's Been 50 Days Since I've...

...

BS (blogosphere): Ok dave, now that we've clicked on your smartassed titled post, will you at least tell us what it was you last did 50 days ago?

YT (yours truly): Gaahhhn, take a punt mate!

BS: We don't speak Aussie slang, *sshole.

YT: Go on and give it a go!

BS: In english, perhaps?

YT: Take a guess, mate!

BS: Hmmmmm, perhaps that's the best translation we'll get...

BS: 50 days since you've picked your nose?

YT: Nope!

BS: 50 days since you've scratched your privates in public?

YT: Nope!

BS: 50 days since your wife was embarrassed to be seen with you in a public place?

YT: Nope! *grin*

BS: 50 days since you've gotten your lazy ass out from in front of the computer?

YT: Nope! I spend time in the pool, too!

BS: We give up...


Before I let you in on my little 50 day secret, I feel the need to post some cool parrot pictures. Especially since I've just subjected some of my more sensitive readers to my odd scents of humour.

Notice how everyone is watching the bloke flying:




As cool as the lories are, whady'all think of that pigeon in the upper left?





Flash! Aaaaa-ah
Saviour of the universe
Flash!
He'll save everyone of us
Flash!
He's a miracle
Flash!
King of the impossible


Whoopsie, sorry about that. Just a bit of nostalgia kicking in.

It has now been 50 whole days

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Washed my shorts!

*TWWWEEEEEETTT*

Time out for a cool bird pic!



*TWWWEEEEEETTT*

Ok, time in.


No seriously! It's true! I haven't washed my shorts for 50 days. Just ask my wife! Well, maybe you'd better not...

You gotta remember, I don't wear underwear. Here's a photo to prove it, see?




Well, actually that's not true. I wear underwear beneath my cycling shorts when I'm riding. Yes, I can hear all you roadies and mounties screaming that you can't wear underwear under your cycling shorts. Ha! 40 years later and no blisters, boils or saddle sores.

I also don't shave my legs. Here's proof:




And why don't I shave my legs? Cus I'm not vain! Read this for proof.

Anyways, back to me not washing my shorts --yes, I'm back on topic!

I jump in the pool 3 or 4 times a day, for a swim (or breakfast or lunch or dinner) between 30 minutes to 2 hours at a time. I keep 4 or 5 pairs of shorts outside on the bench and a couple of towels. That way when I get out of the pool not only do I not have to remember a towel, but I also don't have to remember dry shorts!

See!!?? Ain't I smart?

The way I figure it, the shorts being in the pool for a long time (wrapped around my butt, of course) while soaking in chlorine cleans them suckers pretty darned good. Then, after drying in the direct sun for a while, they are ready to be used for the next time I get out of the pool!

Neat, huh?

Just thought I'd let you all know that it's starting to cool off. In fact, WP is wrapped in a blanket as she types away next to me. And I've even put clothes on! (shorts and tank top, no underwear though)

Today's official high was 33 C (91.4 F) and I saw 92.5 F here. In the direct sun it was a very cool 117 F. As usual, the damned weather pixie on my sidebar is her usual lying self as she says it never got over 85 F. Twit.

But don't worry, I had my hour of pool excersize at 7 am while watching the parrots, no worries!

Bitchy Birds Blazingly Burning

Yeah, no one likes the heat. It can just get everyone PISSED at the entire world. Well, except when you have a pool...

But the birds don't have a pool. So they, quite naturally, take it out on each other.

See what I mean:




Hmmmmm, perhaps just another reason for Fishsticks not to visit. He'd be afraid of being eaten alive by rainbow lorikeets!

A Quickie For Marie

I've been trying to email this screensaver to a mate up in Sweden, but it just never seems to go through any of the email channels.

Soooooo... With Much Ado... Here's the screensaver I made for an Adelaidien transplanted to waaaaaay up north:

Here's the screensaver for Marie in Sweden.

You will note it's a zip file, just save it to your desktop and extract the .scr file. Feel free to run any virus software over it you want to, no worries. Then just right click on the .scr and from the flyout menu chose Install.

Fingers crossed, I'm pullin' for ya, we're all in this together!

Oh, if anyone else wants to download it, no worries. It'll only run on a PC. There's parrots (all kinds), roos, koalas and lots of blue sky pics. Just the thing for your winter!

Another Heat Record In Adelaide

Before I tell you all about that, here's a parrot picture for those of you who only come by to look at purdy birdy pics:




Now, as far as the heat wave goes... MY NEW WEATHER GIRL IS A LYING BITCH!!! Why? Cus we've just equaled a one hundred year old record of consecutive days over 40 C in the shade (that's 104 F if you have an enquiring mind). However: one several of those days my new Weather Pixie trollop hasn't recorded anything of 95 F. Maybe she just doesn't want to take the bikini off if it gets any warmer?

For example, on a day of an official high of 42.5 C shade temp (108.5 F) the dumb bimbo said 95 F. Ummmm, yeah right. You don't really want to know what the temp in the sun has been. I'll give you a hint: Anything between 130 F and 147 F would be a good guess.

SUPERBOWL!!!! My one US football game each year. Wee-Hoo! Although I do look forward to (and follow) the TDF much more than US football, it is nice to watch to superbowl live, Monday Morning at 10:00 am. Damn I'm glad I'm not working!

I was going to make some wings and other hot stuff for my once a year gastronomical gorge gathering, but it's just been a leeeetle bit warm. So I've went with dips and chips.

Obviously, I've got some of my Chilli Cherry Chutney that I made. A red bell pepper with chilli dip, french onion dip, cheese and chive dip, and I'm about to make a spicy cheese dip as soon as I post this. Yes, I made them all.

But I didn't make the chips. Why not? Cus that involves a lot of frying and baking and that pumps a lot of heat into an already hot kitchen. So yes, I bought loads of flavoured potato chips and corn chips.

Ta for now, gotta go pig out on junk food!

We've Abandoned The Upstairs

This was a decision not taken lightly, either. See, there's a/c in one wing of the upstairs (WP's and mine) but the unit cannot handle this heat. Sleeping in an upstairs room over 100 F is not my idea of fun.

Ole Denethor tried to tell us that he'd not so lightly abandon the upper ramparts; we told him to go fuck himself!

Sooooooo, we are camping out in the back, downstairs. There's a brand spanking new split system installed in the back (many many many thanks to the owner) so last night we moved a futon pad down into the sunken lounge in the back room. Ahhhhhhhh, bliss. Even BIL crashed down there on his inflatable camping mattress.

I had dinner in the pool last night. And lunch. And today's lunch. And I'll be having tonight's dinner in the pool too.

The official high was 43.1 C or 109.58 F in the shade. Here I saw 112.5 in the shade, and it's currently 104.9 F in the shade. I moved the temp sensor into the sun for a while... 147.2 F Ahhhhh, now I'm starting the thaw some frozen bone marrow that was amassed thru 5 decades in Alaska.

Do y'all like my new weather girl? Just look to your left... I'm sure everyone up north is hoping for the heat to continue so they can get a daily bikini fix.

I had to thaw some bacon earlier. I put it on a plate and placed it in the sun. Well, not only did the bacon thaw, but I don't even have to cook it! Yup, one plate of crispy cooked bacon. Yummy!

The cockatoos have an interesting looking way of handling the heat. They have all their feathers plastered against them (they look really skinny when the do that), they open their beak and pant, and they have their wings about a quarter of the way open. They do their best to look very pathetic. They are also very quiet --WAHOO! Quiet cockatoos!!!

Here's some pics:










I think the cat fried his little brains...

Record Adelaide Heat Wave 2009

Well, we are only 4 days into this season's first heat wave and we've already borken a record. The record was for Highest Overnight Low Temp. It only got down to 33.9 C (that's 93.02 for you who think in fartinhights) last night. I think that was around 1 am. By 5 am it was already 99 F (or 37.2 if you think in celtzers).

The forecast is for 44 C (111 F) in the shade. There's also no end to the heat. Here's the official word from the Ozzie BOM (remember, this is in C and it's in the shade):

Adelaide Forecast
Issued at 11:40 am CDT on Thursday 29 January 2009

Warning Summary
Nil.

Forecast for Thursday
Dry. A mostly sunny and very hot day. Moderate to fresh northwest winds, turning
moderate southerly during the late afternoon or evening.

Precis Dry. Mostly sunny.
City: Max 44
Elizabeth: Max 45
Mount Barker: Max 44
Noarlunga: Max 43

UV Alert: 9:20 am to 5:30 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 12 [Extreme]
Fire Danger: Extreme (Mount Lofty Ranges Fire Ban District)

Forecast for Friday
Dry. A mostly sunny and very hot day. Moderate to fresh northerly winds,
becoming light and variable during the afternoon, tending moderate southeast
late evening.

Precis Dry. Mostly sunny.
City: Min 30 Max 41

Saturday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 25 Max 40
Sunday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 23 Max 40
Monday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 22 Max 39
Tuesday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 22 Max 38
Wednesday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 22 Max 38

The next routine forecast will be issued at 4:00 pm CDT Thursday

Another thing to keep in mind is that for the last 3 days they had been forecasting 41. Then at the morning, they bump it up to 44 for that one day. Right now at the ole homestead it is 111 F in the shade (we are spot on with the official temp) and it's 137.7 F (58.7 C) in the sun.

Ummmm, that's cooler than yesterday, BTW.

TRAIN TRACKS BUCKLE AND IGNITE IN THIS HEAT!!!!!

Yup, that's true. A couple of sections of the commuter rail track buckled and bent in the heat, forcing Adelaide Metro to use massive amounts of buses during peak commuter times. Here's a picture:





And there's also been a report or two of the rails themselves spontaneously combusting --that means the railroad track catches fire. I know, you are asking how the heck does that happen. Well, oil and grease from the engines and rail cars gets deposited onto the tracks. The sun heats the iron (that's what rail tracks are made of) up to a pretty darned hot temp and then it goes... Ka-Whumph!

Gee, and you thought Ripley's was unbelievable. BTW, CFS (Country Fire Service) crews are on alert all along rail areas --and pretty much all areas for that matter. Heck, all the national parks are closed; all it would take is for some moron to have a spark from a stink-stick (cigarette) drop onto the ground ANYWHERE and there'd be a big ole bushfire.

Oh, I just got a news report where they've said that the hottest 11 years in Australia have occured in the last 12 years. Of course, the deniers were all over the comment section... Did I mention yesterday was the hottest day since 1939?

Last year in March we had a heat wave. It wasn't this hot, but it set an Australian record for a capital city for consecutive days over 35 C (95 F). Doesn't sound too hot, but after a month of it...

Of course there's a bay up in the north end of WA (Western Australia) that holds the world record for consecutive days over 100 F. 160 days in a row. Ouch.

I've got some good pics of the morning cockatoo flock sitting in the trees here. They've been very quiet, like deathly quiet (if you know cockatoos then you know what I mean). The way they beat the heat is to lay all their feathers against their body, spread the wings out slighty, and pant. They also look very pathetic when they do this. No pictures are going to be uploaded today, cus I'm going in the pool.

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BEER!

Ahhhhhh, 94 F water never felt so cool...

If Ya Can't Stand The Heat, Git Outta The Oven!

Before I talk (write) about how nice and warm and roasty and toasty it is down in South Oz, here's a few parrot pictures to placate those who drop by for their daily bird. Oh, BTW, flickr is being disgustingly slow today, so I uploaded these with blogger. That means (as you all know) click on the image to get a larger size.









Now then. It's rather warm down here this week. Yesterday the forecast was for 41 C in the shade (106 F) but it peaked at the "official" temp station at 43.2 C (109.76) shade temp. The temp here at the ole homestead yesterday was 112 F in the shade (44.5 C) and the temp in the sun was 139 F (59 C).

Well... today is warmer. The forecast is for 44 C in the shade (it's already 45.5 C in the shade down at the official weather station at 1:48 pm, Wednesday). That's 114 F in the shade. Here at the homestead it's 117.2 F in the shade and a whopping 145 F in the sun.

The water temp in the pool is holding steady at 92 F (33.3 C). For those of you who've ever been to Chena Hot Springs just outside of Fairbanks, you'll notice that this is the temp of the pools there. Mmmmmmm, feels warm when you jump in, eh?

Well, right now I have to steel myself for the onslaught of the frigid water penetrating my every pore and finding its way into places cold water just shouldn't be!

Harumph!

And stay off my lawn!!!

On a bright note, I saved some money today. I baked 3 loaves of bread. Didn't bother to turn the oven on, just put the bread pans on the hot bricks outside...