Just in case anyone wondering. Oz is super dry, super hot at present. Drought like no others, so widespread. 39 here today, over 40 tomorrow. Not sure how were gonna end up, rain the only answer. Im no gloomsday person but getting serious. Been breathing smoke for weeks, fires just upped the ante today. Not a great or lucky country just at present.
lf l was a praying man, l'd pray for rain for you blokes. Seen what happens when things get dry here but ain't nothing like what you Aussies have to endure.
Wishing you some good luck over there.
That looks and sounds pretty grim to me Grog..It's a shame we couldn't send some of our UK rain over to you!!
I hope it eases soon :onya:
I hope no 1400 are harmed during the drought.
I was beginning to think the fires were all over as the coverage on TV has died down over the last week or two but it seems not. Stay safe you convicts.
It heard it on the Dutch radio this morning,
Apparently 8 localised fires became one massive fire front :facepalm:
Hope no more get hurt
You guy's over there
be carefull
Frightening times - take care down there guys :bugga:
Is that map a true representation of where the fires are at present Grog? Looks like the whole country is burning, fark!
Quote from: KiwiCol on Saturday, 07 December 2019, 01:52 AM
Is that map a true representation of where the fires are at present Grog? Looks like the whole country is burning, fark!
It is Col (but they do show fires burning in the ocean above Australia:) so not 100% accurate.
It really is bad here atm & Sydney has just been in a smoke haze for weeks it seems. Now cancelling sporting events & maybe closing beaches etc.
Still 100 fires burning just in NSW & QLD is just as bad with the rest of the country burning as well.
It happens every year, but this does seem at a New level & so early in the season.
Terrible. And this is only the start of the summer. In the UK today they showed video footage of Sydney with the pall of smoke over it and were saying how the fires are linking up to create what essentially is an inferno. We can only imagine the reality
Not good, not good at all. With the whole country being a tinderbox at present and the winds not helping in the slightest, you guys def need some rain.
http://amp.abc.net.au/article/11768654
Click on the video, these people really are Hero's to me. Risking their lives to save people's property in these conditions. :worshippy:
Aye not looking so great down there at the moment hope it takes a turn for the better soon.
This is what happens when a certain element of the population is vociferously opposed to controlled burns during good conditions.
Fires here are inevitable. The sap of gum trees is full of oil... Fuel build up means that fires spread quicker and are larger.
The aboriginal people used to do burn offs of areas before white men came here. They knew.
But anyway yeah it's pretty serious down here, luckily not too bad around Brisbane aside from a lot of smoke.
One problem is that even though our fire fighting fleet of aircraft is increasing each year (mostly contracted via Coulson Aviation) it is simply nowhere near large enough to deal with a situation like this one. Just a tiny fraction, for example, of the fleet available to control Californian fires when they cop it. And with just a few large aircraft obviously they can't be everywhere needed at one time.
The guys (and girls) on the ground are true heroes. No doubt about it. But they can't do it forever, heat and hard work takes its toll. And it's bloody dangerous work too.
Then there's the issue of non-maintenance of fire trails by closing off areas to recreational four wheel drives. You know because 'environment' ::)
Nature can be a bastard but to some extent it's worsened by human stupidity.
Damn nead compulsory ppe if you need to work outside.
Fire near Sydney, been burning weeks now. Flames up to 70metres high. Has burnt out 380 thou.Hectares. 5% the area of Tasmania or 6 times area of Isle of Man. Cant be stopped. How scary is that shit.
I heard them refer to it as a MEGAFIRE today on the radio WTF :furious: :furious: :furious: :furious:
BBC News carried the story that many fires caused by ARSONISTS WTF ???? :furious:
Yeah, we had a story similar the other day too, Aussie police had arrested several teen for setting fires.
I think WE (Canada) have about 29 Fire Management and Fighters in Oz right now - Its been raining here in Vancouver for about 3 weeks - trying to figure out how send some of it to you guys!!! Stay safe!
Crazy eh. Be super frightening.
Please send Global, our only answer. Thanks for your firefighters. Ive lived in same place 27 yrs, garden been there most of that time. Today i noticed dying plants that have never been anywhere near that stressed before.
Hope you get some help from mother nature soon Grog.
Firefighters share a common bond no matter where they come from. Hats off to them.
Quote from: Kiwifruit on Thursday, 19 December 2019, 05:12 AM
Hope you get some help from mother nature soon Grog.
Firefighters share a common bond no matter where they come from. Hats off to them.
:onya: I share these sentiments, it's difficult to know what to say when something so monumental is happening to you guys in Oz.
Good luck with the rain, when it comes. It's unbelievable to think that it's almost a ring of fire around your country. Thoughts with you and yours.
I heard on the UK lunchtime news today that Australia recorded its hottest ever daytime temperature ever. That really is not good news.
Quote from: gsxbarmy on Thursday, 19 December 2019, 08:25 AM
I heard on the UK lunchtime news today that Australia recorded its hottest ever daytime temperature ever. That really is not good news.
Fake News....... what did they say the temp was? The highest "average" temperature, yes: 40.9C in Dec 2019 it bet 40.3 in Dec 2013.
The highest maximum temperature was recorded as 50.7 °C (123.3 °F) at Oodnadatta on 2 January 1960, ??? bloody climate change came earlier than expected.
When I was working at Bourke, 15 years ago, it was 49C in the shade, >56C out where the poor souls were picking grapes. Meanwhile :cheers: in the pool in the motel was the best place to be.
Quote from: gsxbarmy on Thursday, 19 December 2019, 08:25 AM
I heard on the UK lunchtime news today that Australia recorded its hottest ever daytime temperature ever. That really is not good news.
Not highest peak temp but highest average over the whole of AUS since the last record in the 60s I believe
Quote from: gsxbarmy on Thursday, 19 December 2019, 08:25 AM
I heard on the UK lunchtime news today that Australia recorded its hottest ever daytime temperature ever. That really is not good news.
Sorry I meant highest average daytime temp - which apparently is expected to be exceeded again this week
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-50837025
Crazy.
Just in case anyone has missed our fire updates. After so many weeks, now getting worse. Seems like a life gets lost every day. Too hard to describe the damage.Smoke now in NZ, who wouldve thought it could travel that far. Bad times.
Seen it on the news
@grog people fleeing to the beaches to escape the fire, firefighters getting cut off, roads shut, towns cut off - over 100 fires burning.
Truly terrible, the loss of life and environment, seems the whole of SE Australia is on fire from Sydney up to Brisbane, terrible times. When or how it will ever end - no idea.
Have to take my hat off to the firefighters though, brave lads
WE are sending you more help!
Quote from: grog on Wednesday, 01 January 2020, 06:16 PM
Just in case anyone has missed our fire updates.
Hard to miss those updates. 3 Articles in one of the Online Media today. One of them about fires and fireworks (Sydney). My thought: Smoke all over and then adding more junk in the air. :whatever:
Fireworks can be dangerous.
https://www.ladbible.com/news/news-animals-die-in-new-years-eve-fire-at-german-zoo-20200101?fbclid=IwAR2v3rr72D_4_AFkIgkWra3lBbzV4Gt51j8pFaRudBCOmrcQTrUNxPZ5d8A
The fires skirted around my place last couple of days, the suburb I live in used to be quite heavily wooded until about 5 years ago the council freed up regulations on removing trees on properties, I like other neighbours got rid of large one's close to the house, in the past I have had fires within 100 metres.
Most rural areas here have a 10/50 allowance, permitting homeowners to remove any and all vegetation within 10 metres of their house without a permit, and undergrowth (not trees) out to 50 metres. ( Generally removed of trees required environmental permits :rolleyes: )
To put the Australian fires in perspective, many will remember the catastrophic California bushfires in 2018. They certainly made headlines and Aussie firefighters were among those who went over there to assist. The Australian situation is seven times the size/destruction of those.
Quote from: VladTepes on Friday, 03 January 2020, 11:17 AM
Most rural areas here have a 10/50 allowance, permitting homeowners to remove any and all vegetation within 10 metres of their house without a permit, and undergrowth (not trees) out to 50 metres. ( Generally removed of trees required environmental permits :rolleyes: )
"CENTRAL Coast Council on Monday night voted to tighten the former Wyong Shire Council's tree removal rules.
Those rules allowed a landowner to remove any tree or vegetation on a residential property (less than 1500 square metres) without an application."
My property doesn't fall under the 10/50 allowance. It was a local council rule brought in after the last fire since been changed.
No permits where required.
Looking really bad there, saw the news last night where they showed a burnt out car with a river of ally running down the side of it, ally melts at 660 degrees C but to run in a flow it must maintain that temp so I'm guessing it was well over 700 degrees, that's fucking hot, I really hope you convicts get a break soon and it starts to piss down, then you'll probably get flooding. good luck to you all and hope you get through it soon.
Really feeling for you all over there, we can only imagine the sh1t you're going through.
Praying for rain and a drop in rain.
Hope you and yours are safe.
Chris
And it is a Scorcher here today. 45degrees C (113 f) at my place in NW Sydney and in a majority of NSW areas.
It is going to be a horrific day for the firefighters and add a predicted late change with strong winds and it's really looking bad.
Mate, I dunno what to say, 45 degrees is an inferno without the flames! I feel so sad for all you over there, n especially so those we see affected by these bloody fires.
We did want to retire in Aussie, but 45 degrees in SYD, it'd be hotter up Cairns way & I couldn't hack SYD temps let alone further up.
I had my share of heat working outside in 42° for weeks. I can adapt to that. But prefer 24°. Fire and its accompanying smoke - definitely not for me!!! I'd get the hell out of there.
Feeling for you all over there.
Spoke with my son in Lumsden in the lower South Island yesterday. He said he was working on his house and said the sky changed to like that of a solar eclipse and he could smell the smoke. Thats a long way from Aus.
Be safe you blokes.
:cheers:
It actually ended up hitting 47 at my place and 48.9 at Penrith in the western suburbs :cry2:
It's not the norm, but that was a bloody hot day. Only 27 today :boogie:
We have just got on the boat in Auckland and the sky is a weird colour.
Like my son said its like an eclipse.
Taken from our boat.....not of the boat.
Wow that's freakish.
Here's some NASA satellite imagery and you can see the amount of smoke blowing Soth East toward NZ.
(https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/xa9wPsB2HyjBfYNYXEaGn-650-80.jpg)
https://www.space.com/australia-wildfires-satellite-images-2019-2020.html
(https://images.7news.com.au/publication/C-632329/e211272e0e811973465939513be9d2fa78fc5636-16x9-x0y0w1304h734.png?imwidth=1024&impolicy=sevennews_v2)
Nowhere near me luckily, but this is the town of Mallacoota in Victoria yesterday. The top right photo was taken at mid-day, and the others around 2pm. Yep, middle of the fucking day!
Photo credit: 7News
full article: https://7news.com.au/news/bushfires/victoria-fires-mallacoota-residents-hose-down-homes-as-ash-falls-c-632329
Some stats on the current 'bushfire season' so far..
August 2019 – present
Burned area Over 6,300,000 hectares (16,000,000 acres; 63,000 km2; 24,000 sq mi)
Think about that for a moment... 63,000 square kilometres. and compare it to the United Kingdom total land area of 242,495 square km. So that's 1/4 of the entire UK up in flames. An area three times the size of Wales.
Yeah that's big eh.
Causes
Lightning strikes
Arson <-- they should hang these pricks. Or stake them out in the fireline.
Lack of hazard reduction
Positive Indian Ocean Dipole
Buildings destroyed 2,500+
Fatalities 25 people as of 5 January 2020 <-- fortunate this isn't many many more.
Aye when u put it into numbers u can barely comprehend the enormity of it all heard there was some talk of a wee bit of rain on the News don't know if it came to anything or was any good?
Seeing news reports, photos and videos on Facebook it looks awful. You just can't comprehend the total devastation caused by these fires.
I really hope it eases soon for you all down under.
Stay safe...if you can.
Found this image. Just to give an idea of the area that's burning/burnt.
I think have about 100 helpers down with you now - I remember it being like that in Vancouver a couple of years ago with our raging forest fires We live in a forest so feel your fear! - Stay safe!
And then there's the heat maps. The Bureau of Meteorology ran out of colours so they had to quickly come up with some more.
Nice to see we are sharing our smokes with those over in the land of the long white cloud. :cheers:
Smoke clouds have reached Chile and Argentina - 12000 km away.
Quote from: Andre on Wednesday, 08 January 2020, 09:04 AM
Smoke clouds have reached Chile and Argentina - 12000 km away.
bloody hell!
Was reading today the rain from cyclone in NW will work its way to Victoria, even Tasmania. Now thats a bloody long trip for rain.
Quote from: grog on Wednesday, 08 January 2020, 06:09 PM
Was reading today the rain from cyclone in NW will work its way to Victoria, even Tasmania. Now thats a bloody long trip for rain.
I don't think it's the same rain drops :confused1:
Quote from: grog on Wednesday, 08 January 2020, 06:09 PM
Was reading today the rain from cyclone in NW will work its way to Victoria, even Tasmania. Now thats a bloody long trip for rain.
$20 says it doesn't. You taking that bet?
Vlad, seems the rain from it will make Tassie tomorrow. Yeah Convert, must be big raindrops. :) Maybe i shouldve said clouds with rain, i often stuff up.
Quote from: grog on Thursday, 09 January 2020, 06:09 PM
Yeah Convert, must be big raindrops. :) Maybe i shouldve said clouds with rain, i often stuff up.
Kinda like being PC :whistling:
Is PC, probably crap, personally confused, pointless contribution or just saying this poor old Aussie isnt politically correct. Ill put my hand up for all.
That's the spirit Grog :rofl2:
I confirm, Australia has gone crazy: https://www.taste.com.au/articles/smiths-just-released-lamington-flavoured-chips/kn3qat9q
I hope you guys are all safe down there and I do pray you get a shit load or rain in the places you need it to get the fires under control and save lives and animals and land god speed guys :onya: