Everyone's gone, but the oppresive heat remains

The players are gone, the crowd's
 gone, but the oppressive heat,
and a flyer posted by Beneath
 the Wisteria supporters, remains.

The players are gone, as is the crowd, but the heat remains.

Saturday’s Australian Football League pre-season match played at Shepparton’s Deakin Reserve between Essendon and Geelong attracted more than 5000 people who braved a 37 degree day to see the action.

Saturday was the first day in at least of week of extreme heat when the average temperature in Shepparton was predicted to be 38.5°C.

The temperature today, Sunday, March 6, was 38.2°C and the present heatwave has been described by the Bureau of Meteorology as “severe”.



Heat and Sport flyers, fly off the blocks

John Pettigrew (back) hands
out a flyer at Shepparton's
Deakin Reserve today.

Flyers pointing the risks and dangers of playing a vigorous sport on a hot day “flew off the blocks” at the Australian Football League’s pre-season match played today in Shepparton.

Shepparton’s Beneath the Wisteria had two people at the main pedestrian gate leading to the city’s Deakin Reserve and all 150 flyers were gone in just 40 minutes.

Thousands flooded into the ground and so although the few flyers distributed seemed comparatively inadequate, John Pettigrew and Robert McLean felt that if the flyer’s message reached and changed the views of just one person, it was a worthwhile effort.

Shepparton’s hot day (it was 37ºC, at least) drew comments and complaints from many people entering the ground, with some suggesting the game should have been cancelled and others arguing it should have been played in the evening.

An Essendon supporter who had driven up from Melbourne said she and her husband would have come even if the game was played at night.

A direct connection was made on the flyer between climate change and heat, pointing out that people, regardless of age or fitness, frequently became up to 70% less effective once the temperature passed 35ºC.

The flyer.

It also noted the northern Victoria was officially in a heat-wave scenario once that part of the state experienced three successive days of 32ºC. For Melbourne that was just 30ºC and in the Mildura area, in the north-west part of the state, it was 35ºC. The average temperature in Shepparton this week is predicted to be 38.5ºC, as pointed out on the flyer.

The importance of greenery, in this case primarily trees, was evident today for although Deakin Reserve might be ideal for what it is intended, shade and cool spots were at a premium.

Provision of trees has not be a high priority, but it is something which will need to be addressed as climate change tightens its grip.

The result today: Geelong easily defeated Essendon.

(The idea to hand out the flyers came from supporter, Alan English).