I don’t think it got anywhere near 46 C at Warrandyte, but it was bloody hot nonetheless. Coldstream hit 43.8 C and I think Warrandyte would have been similar.
Feels almost blase saying we only reached 43.8. This is a temperature graph from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology:
I grew up in that middle bit where there are a couple of hot spikes but mostly cool to cold troughs. I remember what summers were like back then. We lived in a solid brick, Federation Edwardian house that stayed cool most of the time. We didn’t even own a fan. Back then, the priority was staying warm in winter.
Now…43.8 C, air-conditioning and multiple fans and the inside temperature of the house stayed at 30 C all day. Bearable, but only because we were lucky and only lost power for about 10 minutes.
Is this ‘proof’ of Climate Change? Or is it just weather? When I look at that graph I can’t help thinking we’re experiencing the predicted, climate change extremes already, and that scares me. If this one day was so bad, how will we cope with even worse days?
And yes, there are still those who believe that all of climate change is just some kind of global conspiracy. I’ve been arguing with a few on Twitter today. But you can’t really have a ‘meeting of minds’ when the other person attempts to use personal put downs to win the argument.
Logic doesn’t work with people like that. Facts don’t either. Yelling and name calling might, but I was brought up to believe that emotive arguments are shameful and weak. That people who use them are shameful and weak.
So I walked away with my integrity intact but a truly bad taste in my mouth. Not because I didn’t ‘win’, but because I couldn’t change things for the better.
When did facts and logic become such blunt tools?
You’d think I’d know better. My Mum was an emotive arguer and it used to drive me crazy. I guess the truth is I never found a way to discuss anything with her, not without it becoming a huge screaming match. Apparently, I still don’t know how to do it. The only difference is that I’m 66 instead of 16, and I don’t yell and scream any more…
Apologies for the rant. I’m hot, tired and angry. 😦
Meeks
Meeka's Mind 
January 28th, 2019 at 5:23 pm
That hot air-flow soaking east Australia has rolled across the Tasman and is hitting New Zealand now as I write this. Where I am in Wellington has escaped the worst of it (an increase of 7 degrees) but I’ve got family further north who’re sweltering. Climate change is definitely a thing, and sure, some of it’s natural – but humans have been driving it of late, and right now what we’re experiencing is an own-goal of monstrous proportion. In the immediate it’s not the heat, it’s the weather chaos that goes with it. And then it’ll be the water, as the ice-caps melt, and all the rest of it as temperate zones shift and the oceans acidify and so on. I don’t understand why some people deny climate change (or deny that it’s driven by humans, or both). I mean, humanity has been pouring the efflux of fossil-fuel combustion and all the other detritus of our civilisation into the air for 200 years plus, at ever increasing scale. What did we think was going to happen? Sigh…
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January 28th, 2019 at 3:07 pm
I feel for you guys! I’ve experienced 40 degrees only once — in Saskatchewan in 1988. (I experienced -40 there too, but that’s a “normal” extreme winter temp for the Canadian prairies).
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January 29th, 2019 at 10:19 am
Oh my god…that is a huge temperature variance. It must have felt even worse, especially if your body isn’t somehow used to that kind of heat. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t survive -40 C. 😦
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January 29th, 2019 at 11:06 am
I withstand cold better than heat, but I’m not sure how I’d do in serious cold anymore, after 26 years on Vancouver Island. I know I’m not keen on 30 C (which must seem cool to you these days).
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January 29th, 2019 at 2:31 pm
lol – yeah, 30 is bearable, even without a fan or aircon.
Is Vancouver Island more moderate because of proximity to the ocean or because of its location – i.e. more south or something?
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January 29th, 2019 at 4:39 pm
Our summer temps are usually quite cool–in the 20s, but occasionally (and more frequently now) we get a few days to a couple of weeks of 30+. It’s not humid here, though, and we don’t need air conditioning, so I really shouldn’t complain. I do wonder how fast the climate will heat up, though. And heat means drought and fires, which have been pretty bad the last couple of summers in the British Columbia interior.
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January 29th, 2019 at 8:33 pm
Yeah, drought and bushfires are the killers here too. We live on the urban ‘fringe’ between city and country and summer stresses me out each year.
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January 30th, 2019 at 5:05 am
Summer stress is becoming a thing, sadly. 😒
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January 30th, 2019 at 9:33 am
Yeah.
‘The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it’
Omar Khayyam
He wasn’t talking about climate change, but the words seems strangely apt. Too late to accept climate change once we’ve made the world a terrible place for our children.
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January 27th, 2019 at 8:53 pm
even if one factors in more accurate and detailed recording equipment etc it seems to me that climate change can’t be denied, and that it’s escalating more rapidly than anticipated. Perhaps these deniers were taught (as I was – briefly) that we were about to enter into another ice age. That was the thinking at our rural primary school back in the 1970’s. It wasn’t a very good school; too much influence from an unpleasant and cruel headmistress til she retired, and rather too small for my liking. Still,Ii survived it, and it’s made me sufficiently cynical that I’ve tried to fact check stuff for most of my life!
We found it incredibly surprising and rather shocking, on our first visit to WA in November 1999 just how little care was taken of the environment, how few people took advantage of the natural resources for solar power and the impact people had on the environment – nothing was recycled, packaging was extreme, very little was repurposed or reused and because Kalbarri had it’s own spring, we weren’t encouraged to consider the amount of water used and wasted. I was pleased to see that this changed dramatically, from visit to visit over the following decade which I found reassuring. Haven’t been back since 2010, when lots of people had started to install PV cells, and start to reduce their waste, but it was interesting how many people didn’t consider their own actions / impact. It’s the case everywhere i think – just more noticeable when travelling.
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January 27th, 2019 at 9:39 pm
Yeah, we were very wasteful, still are. Sadly we also produce the largest amount of pollution per capita in the world. A seriously unpleasant distinction. As for the ice age, I remember reading a book by Aussie author Colleen McCullough about adapting to an ice age so it was definitely making the rounds back then. I think what has most people stumped is how quickly we went from possible ice age to potentially disastrous global warming. Of course, it’s precisely the /speed/ at which it’s happened that points the finger at human induced warming.
You’ll be pleased to know that a well-known comedian has started a ‘War on Waste’, right here. It’s partly funny but also a way to educate people about how wasteful we really are. Most of us are taking our own bags when we go shopping now. 🙂
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January 27th, 2019 at 9:08 am
The heat on Friday was extraordinary, but so too was that the temp on Thursday night didn’t go below 30. And so many places north of us have been having these temperatures for weeks on end. How are they coping?
One of the things I don’t get about climate change deniers is ‘what’s in it for them’? It is obvious that those connected to the coal industry in some way will hang onto those lumps of coal (and even bring them into Parliament!) no matter what. But what do ordinary people get out of it? They have to suffer the 40+ days, cyclones, loss of the Barrier Reef etc. just like the rest of us.
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January 27th, 2019 at 1:39 pm
Yeah, Thursday night was almost worse than Friday. Almost. I think the inland areas are getting close to ‘deadly’. I don’t know how much heat the human body can withstand, but I can’t imagine it would be much more, not without serious cooling.
As for the deniers? I don’t /know/, but I suspect that some are simply so disenchanted with the current powers-that-be that they /want/ to disbelieve. And if Big Tobacco is anything to go by, the internet is chock-a-block full of subsidised sites set up specifically to muddy the waters. People who don’t want to believe find these sites and swallow the faux science without checking anything first.
Plus, maybe, they can’t face the idea that we’re all to blame, and that we all have to make changes to our lifestyles. Ostrich behaviour?
Anyway, it was an interesting expedition that I don’t want to make again in a hurry. 😦
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January 26th, 2019 at 1:05 pm
Thank you for sharing that graph- it’s very scarily hot right now up here in Northern NSW. My friends in Adelaide sent me screen shots of their phone temperatures at 47.7!!! And god help them if there’s a power outage so the aircon fails 😩 People will die, especially the elderly. Very scary times indeed
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January 26th, 2019 at 11:09 pm
Yeah. I thought things were bad here until I started talking with people living further inland. Made me realise Melbourne got off lightly. Hope there aren’t any more of these events this summer. 😦
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January 26th, 2019 at 11:52 am
Oh Meeks, that’s truly horrible. Keep as cool as you can, my friend. 😦
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January 26th, 2019 at 11:44 pm
Thanks, Widds. Just took the dog outside for the night time pee walk and it’s positively chilly now! Such a relief.
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January 26th, 2019 at 8:48 am
And then it dropped to about half that. Summer is summer, I get it, but things are changing and not for the best.
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January 26th, 2019 at 9:48 am
Yeah. We were told we’d get more extremes. We’re getting more extremes. And they’re coming more often.
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January 26th, 2019 at 4:52 am
Unless there is a major change of direction, there will be many more HOT ANGRY arguments in the future all over the world!
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January 26th, 2019 at 9:51 am
Yeah, I’m bracing for it. I wonder how bad things have to get before the world accepts reality? It took decades for us to accept that Big Tobacco was lying, and that smoking really was killing us. -sigh-
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January 26th, 2019 at 4:14 am
Scary. People just want to stick their fingers in their ears and shout “I can’t hear you!” SMH SInce when did ignoring a problem NOT make it worse?
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January 26th, 2019 at 9:56 am
I know! We’ve been told again and again that a gentle transition will be a lot less painful than a sudden hard change, but it seems future catastrophe is preferable to any change in lifestyle now.
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January 26th, 2019 at 4:12 am
OMG, that is way too hot. I start melting at +25 and am immobile from +30 upwards. The most we’ve had it here is +38, and that was unbearable… Really, really hope you can stay cool there. Here it’s been snowing all day and the pavements are treacherous with ice. Wish I could throw a few snowballs your way *sigh*
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January 26th, 2019 at 9:58 am
lol – swings and roundabouts, Chris. Your summers are pleasant, but your winters are treacherous. Our winters are pleasant-ish but summer is dangerous. It’s all about what you get used to. I honestly don’t think I could survive in the cold.
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January 26th, 2019 at 4:09 am
I’ve just gone on a Facebook holiday. Too much backing-and-forthing. I haven’t been active on Twitter for a long time, though I share things there. Sounds like I need to go light on social media altogether. Pretend I’ve just come out of a meat locker and I’m giving you a big, cool hug.
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January 26th, 2019 at 10:00 am
lol – yes please on the cool hug! Normally, I don’t let myself spend too long on Twitter either, but it was so hot yesterday, I didn’t have the energy to do anything else. And of course, once I read some of those ‘misconceptions’, I was sure I could set them straight. -sigh- Nothing like an old fool.
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January 27th, 2019 at 12:44 am
😀 They were probably sure THEY could set YOU straight. I’m loving my Facebook vacation. I may make it permanent.
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January 27th, 2019 at 1:56 pm
lol – maybe, although the persuasion was mostly an attempt to put me down. One infant tried to tell me – the poor, clueless computer granny – some bullshit about modelling, computers and GIGO. Garbage-in-garbage-out was old in the 90’s, and while it can be true, it’s very unlikely that every single climate scientist in every single related discipline fudged the data on which the modelling is based. It’s ignorance, pure and simple.
I don’t often feel the need to prove my credentials, but I did that time. 🙂
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January 28th, 2019 at 12:46 am
I was about to type something inflammatory about GIGO and certain “news” sources, but I don’t want to start a flame war on your blog! lol! And don’t dis computer grannies–I’m one, myself! 😀
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January 28th, 2019 at 11:00 am
-giggles- I suspect most of the people on this blog are friends so you’d be safe. And so right! Computer grannies unite. We may be an endangered species. 🙂
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January 26th, 2019 at 12:54 am
Deniers don’t believe the science. That’s just plain stupid in my book. It’s like saying, “If I say I don’t believe it it won’t be true”. It’s what I call magical thinking or willful ignorance – to the detriment of us all.
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January 26th, 2019 at 10:07 am
Yes…magical thinking is a very good description. Trying to counter it with facts is like banging your head against a brick wall. Like Rudy Giuliani’s – ‘truth isn’t truth’.
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January 25th, 2019 at 7:16 pm
It was 49C in the shade outside my back door yesterday. Today, one of the pollies on the radio tried to put the bash on climate change, saying the ‘once in a hundred year’ thing, but the first caller mentioned that the last three years we’ve had heat waves of >36C for 6-9 days – in May.
What followed cut him down like ripe wheat in a dust-storm.
The overall pattern of climate is changing – and that is climate change. Weather is one point on the issue, but the graphs say so much more than one day, one week, one year, one decade or even one or two centuries – the last 200 years have seen a dramatic change in climate patterns.
We need to learn from it.
Have you noticed how many stories are out there about this issue? I’ve got one, you’ve got one, lots of them, and they keep coming. People know, and they’re trying to make it clear, but the loudest voices have a habit of shouting over the crowd, even using megaphones, but how long can that last before they get burned at the stake? (Metaphor, or not?)
Just my opinion … along with millions of others
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January 25th, 2019 at 8:08 pm
49C???? Dear god, how did you survive?
And yes, we can see the patterns changing. I just can’t get my head around those who can’t.
In fairness, I suppose they can’t understand us either. I wonder if there’s some fundamental difference in the way we think?
I showed the graph to one guy and his response was that the BoM had deleted the data before 1910 or whatever.
Why would anyone prefer wilder conspiracy theories than I can come up with…just to avoid admitting that this is our fault?
I gave examples of very obvious man-made damage to someone else – the US Dust Bowl and the Aral Sea, or what’s left of it. No response.
A third turned out to be an Aussie Trump supporter.
I thought I understood people. Arrogance. 😦
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January 26th, 2019 at 9:19 am
South Australia has the longest timeline of data collected for weather – and they haven’t deleted any!
The US dust-bowl was a two-pronged problem: the grass they removed in order to grow wheat was the only thing holding the soil together, and an onset of longer than normal drought years. the combination was catastrophic, and yes, caused by thoughtless actions in order to make a quick buck.
I was going to add something else … but, as you say, there are people out there just waiting to blast their blinkered view and loud voices far and wide …
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January 26th, 2019 at 9:47 am
Sadly I think Climate Change has become as polarised as everything else in the current political climate. We could cite examples of human induced environmental degradation until the year 3000 and those opposed will still disagree. Science is now seen as subjective rather than objective. If it don’t suit, don’t believe it.
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January 25th, 2019 at 5:35 pm
Hard, hot times, Andrea. Those stats don’t look like liars.
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January 25th, 2019 at 8:09 pm
How did you fare up in Beechworth? I know it was even hotter inland.
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January 25th, 2019 at 8:16 pm
It’s all pretty rubbish, Andrea. At least we’re not burning to date.
Still hot as stink – still 42 degrees. As low as 24 tonight, so a little better, but not much.
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January 25th, 2019 at 8:44 pm
-knock on wood-
and ouch. The outside has cooled a bit now but inside the walls are still radiating heat. Stay cool and let’s hope we get through Feb. without any fires.
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January 25th, 2019 at 9:19 pm
I’ve just been to the lake – swimming after dark. Storm, with a little rain.
Enough to drop the temp. Lovely.
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January 26th, 2019 at 10:12 am
lol – that does sound rather nice. The temp here [Saturday] is much lower but humid. Some areas had a bit of rain but we missed out. Maybe later.
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January 26th, 2019 at 11:13 am
I was deceived, Andrea. The night was a horror.
Better this morning, but starting to cook.
Glad I’ll be at work this afternoon.
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January 26th, 2019 at 11:45 pm
Yeah, we had a not-cool-change here as well, but tonight [Saturday] is lovely and cool so hang in there, it’s coming.
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January 27th, 2019 at 8:13 am
Nice this morning.
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January 27th, 2019 at 1:39 pm
Yeah. Feels like we can all breathe again, for a while.
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