2015/16 Terra Australis 'troppo blog'
Reading about the floods in South Carolina, the French Riviera, and also of the increased fire threats through southern Australia, yep, the next few months are going to be 'interesting'.
This article gives an idea of how weird it's been...I had no idea just how hot Sydney was, nor how many fires are burning so fiercely.
Oh goody! The forecast tomorrow for me is 105.8F.
At least, I'll be working inside in air-con comfort, but there'll be a lot of people who'll have to be outside in it ... not least our firefighters.
Did you see? Local BoM gave Life on Mars weather reports, in honour of David Bowie, including updates for wind and dust storms...
This pedant will tell you that Weatherzone is not your local BoM, but a commercial organisation using the official information supplied by the BoM to create its product.
Um, I know, but the report originated at BoM, I just couldn't get it from there to here.
http://www.eldersweather.com.au/ for a perspective from the rural point of view
Or, closer to (my) home, there's http://www.baywx.com.au/melbtemp2.html
When things get hot here, or when someone's thinking is affected by the weather, we say they've 'gone troppo'. It's code for stuff generally being weird, and maybe in an alternate universe that almost feels normal. If you're lucky you can get used to it, and it's not too sinister.
The continent of Australia has been through some weird stuff over the past couple of years and not all of it can be attributed to our current federal government nor our former Prime Minister. No doubt you've read that 2014/15 has been the warmest ever year for our planet, and our continent has been badly affected (being already dry, to start with).
It's barely October. Already the east coast and southern Australia have experienced several days of temperatures well into the 30degrees C mark. That's around the high 80s and 90s in your degrees. Our Spring started on 1st September. Temperatures like this are rarely seen in November, it's decades since we've had a heatwave in early October. Troppo, indeed.
We've already started our bushfire season. Way too early, and in southern places that should be sopping wet and very green not tinder-dry.
It doesn't feel exceptionally wrong, though. I mean, yes, the upper temperatures do but high-20s doesn't. It just feels summery and like Christmas is around the corner. What helps, of course, is that the jacarandas are already in bloom: whole trees in purple-y blue waving gently in the breeze. No red poinciana yet, or the rain trees, but we've had red cape tulip trees blooming majestically for ages. Jacarandas mean final exams and Christmas, so this is odd.
Apparently it's incredible fishing just now up the Top End, in the waters above Darwin. Loads of barramundi and similar game fish. Great stuff for a long weekend, and the end of school holidays. (Last term for the school year starts tomorrow)
Why am I writing all this? Well, there's an El Niño. It's doing fascinating things all around the Indian Ocean. And I've noticed before that your weather and our weather seems to work as a kind of mirror. (I haven't worked out which follows the other, though) So if we're unseasonably hot by two months, and our last summer was over-long, I'm not sure about your winter but your summer might be hot and dry with a really really bad fire season.