NSW and Victoria bushfire conditions to worsen with fears blazes could be unstoppable

Authorities fear bushfires already burning across south-east Australia could be unstoppable under high temperatures and hot, gusty winds predicted today.

Authorities fear conditions will be as bad as New Year's Eve.

There are also grave fears dry lightning could start new fires across parts of New South Wales and Victoria that haven't already been devastated over recent days.

Temperatures in parts of each state will reach into the 40s, with Albury-Wodonga expected to hit a maximum of 46 degrees Celsius.

The Navy yesterday evacuated around 1,000 residents and holidaymakers from the East Gippsland town of Mallacoota, after fire razed parts of the town on New Year's Eve.

Read the ABC News story - “NSW and Victoria bushfire conditions to worsen with fears blazes could be unstoppable.”

‘Very high' fire danger: High temperatures to again scorch the state.

High temperatures are once again set to scorch the state less than a week after a stint of extreme heat left hundreds of thousands of Victorians without power.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Tom Delamotte said temperatures were expected to heat up across Victoria into the mid-to-high 30s on Tuesday and Wednesday. It comes after more than 200,000 Victorians had their electricity switched off on Friday when temperatures were in the 40s, in response to depleted power reserves.

However, a spokesman for the Australian Energy Market Operator said power reserve levels were more robust than they were last week.

"There will be greater resources available to us," he said. "We are also not anticipating the demand to reach the levels it did [on Friday].”

However, this week's rising temperatures are putting pressure on firefighters who are continuing to try to bring five active bushfires under control.

Read the story from The Age by Sophie Aubrey - “‘Very high' fire danger: High temperatures to again scorch the state.”

Heatwaves linked to an increase in Australian suicide rates

Heatwaves and high temperatures can have a dramatic impact on people’s physical health. We only have to look at the increases in emergency department admissions during recent heatwaves to know that.

A spike in suicides linked to spikes in heat.

But not many people realise that high variations in temperatures can also impact our mental health.

For my PhD thesis I studied the socio-environmental drivers of suicide rates in Australia from 1986 to 2005. I found that sudden spikes in average temperatures can be attributed as a risk factor for suicide in some cities.

Read the story from The Conversation by a Researcher from the Queensland University of Technology, Xin Qi - “Heatwaves linked to an increase in Australian suicide rates.”

Pakistan may have just set a world heat record

High temperatures are forecast to reach the mid-80s this week in New York, and I’m dreading it. But I have a plan to stay cool: just thinking of how much hotter it is in Pakistan, which is in the middle of a blistering heat wave.

The misery index is near the top of the charts in South Asia.

Temperatures reported to have cracked 50.2 degrees Celsius (122.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday in Nawabshah, located about 127 miles northeast of Karachi. If confirmed, that could make the measurement not just the hottest ever recorded for April in Pakistan, but the hottest ever reliably recorded for April anywhere on Earth.

“There was a 51.0°C reading reported from Santa Rosa, Mexico in April 2011 but this figure is considered of dubious reliability, so yes, the 50.2° reading is likely the hottest April temperature yet reliably observed on Earth in modern records,” Chris Burt, a weather historian, told Earther in an email.

Read the story by Brian Kahn from Earther  - “Pakistan may have just set a world heat record.”

‘Killer combo' of heat and humidity lining up for Melbourne this weekend

Melbourne is set for an "insufferable" weekend, particularly on Sunday, as a combination of high temperatures and rising humidity lift heat stress to levels rarely seen in the city.

Temperatures in the sun could become particularly intense on Sunday.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, humid conditions will make the maximums for Friday though to Sunday feel considerably warmer than the temperatures suggest.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “‘Killer combo' of heat and humidity lining up for Melbourne this weekend."

Hot temperatures to rock Victoria’s grid.

Brown coal power plants believe they are ready for the long weekend's high temperatures, as energy authorities prepare for a grid stretched to the limit.

The Loy Yang power stations are planning for higher
 demand ahead of high temperatures this weekend. 

A heatwave forecast to hit Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania on the weekend has sparked an Australian Energy Market Operator warning that the system will be under pressure.

Read Cole Latimer’s story from the Melbourne Age - “Hot temperatures to rock Victoria’s grid.”

Northern California firestorm ‘literally exploded,’ killing 15 and destroying hundreds of homes

High temperatures and fast winds are fueling more than a dozen wildfires across California, forcing more than 20,000 northern California residents to evacuate their homes and communities. At least 15 people have died, and more than 200 have been reported missing, after several fires spread rapidly throughout Monday.

Flames from massive wildfire in Napa, California.

The fires ignited late Sunday night and into Monday morning and have since spread over 50,000 acres across Napa and Sonoma counties, destroying at least 2,000 structures and sending at least 100 to the hospital with injuries ranging from burns to smoke inhalation. The Tubbs Fire — which is currently burning at 27,000 acres — has prompted the evacuation of at least 10 neighborhoods in the city of Santa Rosa, which has a population of 125,000. Two hospitals have also been evacuated after the fire jumped across Highway 101 between Sunday night and Monday morning.

Read the Think Progress story by Natasha Geiling - “Northern California firestorm ‘literally exploded,’ killing 15 and destroying hundreds of homes.”

(Those in denial about climate change simple refer to such events as the Californian fires as “natural events” and then end the conversation. They in fact leave the ambulance parked at the bottom of the cliff, collecting the victims, but never wondering, or asking what’s happening, why the people are falling over the cliff.

Falling back on repeated rhetoric, that argue that it is insensitive and unfair to the victims to discuss the potential cause of the fires while the difficulty is actually happening.

Although the Californian fires may be natural in some respects, they are clearly worsened our warming world and surely those of us not intimately involved with the catastrophe have every right to speculate on the cause of the fires and what should be happening to lessen the severity of such events - Robert McLean)

Freaky February Heat Waves Trigger More Chills Over Climate Change

A bonkers February with stretches of extremely high temperatures mixed periodically with plunging mercury is the latest chilling warning about global warming.

Single-day record highs as well as multiple-day heat waves broke more than 248 month-to-date records for February in spots across the nation, according to the National Center for Environmental Information. 

Temperatures in Oklahoma, the home state of new Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic, nearly reached triple digits earlier this month. 

The town of Mangum hit an all-time record Feb. 11 of 99 degrees, more than 40 degrees above the average February high.

Read The Huffington Post story - “Freaky February Heat Waves Trigger More Chills Over Climate Change.”

Another 'really hot' warning

T

he weather bureau has warned that Australia is about to get hotter and drier than predicted, with higher than average temperatures forecast for October through to December.

Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) climate prediction manager Andrew Watkins said Australia had already experienced high temperatures, with Melbourne about 16 degrees above the average on Monday.

People across the country hit the beaches this week, while cafes and pubs were filled with patrons basking in the much-welcomed sunshine.

Read The New Daily story - “Brace yourself Australia, it’s about to get really hot”.

Record high temperatures produce curious cold spot

S

cientists have observed record high temperatures around the world all summer long.

People everywhere are suffering from the intense heat, and the higher temps have contributed to the increasing western drought, wildfires, and all manner of environmental destruction.

All points on the globe seem to be hitting new peaks on the thermostat, except for one. There is a curious cold spot in a map of ever-warming ocean waters, showing a “blob” of cooler-than-expected water in the northern Atlantic Ocean, and it has climate scientists more than just a little freaked out.

Read the inhabitat story - “A curious cold spot in the Atlantic has scientists thinking their worst fears have come true”.