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Australia’s hottest day on record
- dav43 7y agoGuess it’s a good time for a holiday
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- sjwright 7y agoAnd tomorrow it’s forecasted to be 42°C in my inner Sydney coastal suburb. This is insane.
- sundvor 7y agoNormally these +40c days have happened a fair bit later in the summer. To experience 43c on the road in Melbourne today so early feels ominous for what's to come. This is not doing any good for the fire situation either. I'm amazed by the fact that we're still allowing new coal projects to go up.
- larnmar 7y agoThat’s hot but normal for Sydney.
- kdtsh 7y agoA few +40C days in high summer (late Jan/early Feb) are not that unusual, but days of consistent +40C days in mid-December should be sending alarm bells ringing. This is the new `normal', but wasn't like this before a few years ago.
- sundvor 7y agoYeah, just hit 46c at our place north of Melbourne CBD... Crazy times.
- tus88 7y agoExpect that to be broken again within about 3-4 days.
- Thorentis 7y agoWill easily be broken in a couple days. Some places forecast for 46C by the end of the week.
- mamp 7y agoWe had a day or two of 48 C in Adelaide earlier in the year which I’ve never experienced before. Walking around in 43 C heat today didn’t feel as bad in comparison! Still 39 C at 7:30 pm, getting up to 45C on Friday. It’s going to be a bad summer.
- RossBencina 7y agoAustralia is a big place. 40-42C is not uncommon for a summer heatwave day in one city, but as an average across the whole continent it's unusual. FWIW It hit 39.7 here in Melbourne: http://www.baywx.com.au/melbtemp2.html http://www.baywx.com.au/melbtemp2.html
- buzzkillington 7y agoThat's a funny way to spell "Hasn't happened in the last 150 years people have kept records".
- adrianN 7y agoHalf the continent on fire and record temperatures. I wonder how many people already died from this. Are there any numbers available? It must be really hard to breathe, especially for elderly people.
- pimmen 7y agoAnd in Nordic countries I’ve honestly heard people say that the fact that it’s pretty cold right now is evidence against global warming. That whole ”global” part really trips people up. Does anyone know how to explain this nice and clear to people who aren’t that well versed in variances and means? I really struggle.
- jen729w 7y agoIt’s more complicated than it appears. Europe, for instance, may indeed get colder as a result of the warm ocean flows from the west being cut off by melting ice from the Arctic. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2001/jun/21/globalwarming.physicalsciences https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2001/jun/21/globalwa... Hot and dry in Canberra today, and the smoke from the fires is insane.
- saiya-jin 7y agoIt might end up true on average, but my home country in central/eastern Europe (Slovakia) is definitely getting warmer. Long harsh winters of the childhood are gone (having snow 3 months in a row feels surreal these days), ticks and other creepers which were not present in the area I grew up are not very common (altitude cca 750m). I think what most people have trouble realizing is that global warming indeed is a chaotic shift in many weather patterns and only overall average is rising. Ie it might just rain more during summer due to changed water circulation, which will take average yearly temperature down. Most people equate global warming with less snow during winter and heat waves in the summer and imagine it as a equal rise of say +2 all over the place, spread over whole year.
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoI forget the correct name for the event, but there's good precedent. At the end of the last ice age, during the large scale melting, there was a great North American lake formed of melt water, held back by glaciers. When that finally melted into the Atlantic, enough freshwater was dumped to turn off the thermo haline circulation (inc Gulf Stream). Europe tipped into another mini ice age, as the whole globe warmed.
- sudeepj 7y agoThis is similar to what is there in India during summer. Isn't this more problemematic in Australia because of ozone layer depletion [1]? [1] https://www.environment.gov.au/protection/ozone/ozone-science/ozone-layer#More_about_ozone_layer_depletion https://www.environment.gov.au/protection/ozone/ozone-scienc...
- tkyjonathan 7y agoI was under the impression that parts of the ozone have been repairing..
- ben_w 7y agoIt is, but there was a lot of damage and it will be a long time before it’s back to normal. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30602 https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30602
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoThey are, but CFCs are so potent and long lasting that even with the restoration it's going to be about another 50 years before it's "fixed". IIRC it took a couple of decades or more after the global CFC ban for it to even stop getting worse...
- DavidPiper 7y agoThough I know it wasn't your intent, I just want to call out explicitly that ozone layer depletion and global warming are two separate mechanisms. Yes, CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons, the molecules that destroy the ozone layer) are also strong greenhouse gases, but they are present in such small amounts that their effect on global warming is negligible. In the case of the ozone layer, we took action in time and the ozone layer is repairing well [1]. (Somewhat coincidentally - also from the same source - I just learned that warmer global temperatures actually inhibit ozone layer depletion.) [1] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/2019-ozone-hole-is-the-smallest-on-record-since-its-discovery https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/2019-ozone-hole-is...
- shakna 7y agoOzone depletion simply means the sun is more damaging. You burn easier, and you get cancer easier. The long heatwave problems, exhaustion, dehydration, exacerbated fires and so on might be exacerbated in some parts of the country but not to a great extent. If you take the usual precautions (sunscreen, hat, etc.) you shouldn't see an effect.
- lrem 7y agoIs this making any dent in the government's strategy of investing everything they can into fossil fuels?
- tkyjonathan 7y agoYou can persuade them to invest in nuclear micro-reactors and hydro-electric.
- lrem 7y agoCan I though? From what I gather, there is no lobby in the world, maybe outside Asia, that is pro-nuclear.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- designcode 7y agoWe’re past the point of being able to solve it. It’s now the working out the best way to adapt / manage with the new climate
- 6nf 7y agoAustralians are allergic to nuclear power but solar is ok I think
- blaser-waffle 7y agoNo shortage of sunlight in the Oz. Nuclear is going to have to be a discussion topic for the world, me thinks, but the Aussies are only ~27 million people spread across a sunnny continent -- they might be able to swing solar + tesla batteries for some time.
- rstuart4133 7y agoI don't know if Australian's are genuinely allergic to nuclear power. Some people make a lot of noise about it, but some people make a lot of noise about wind too. And it's unlikely we will ever find out, because it's so expensive compared to the alternatives. If nuclear had of delivered on its promise of "too cheap to meter", my bet is the things would be all over the planet like a rash how - rather like wind turbines are today, squawking nimby's be damned.
- jevgeni 7y agoObviously, this is a conspiracy by big solar to inflate their stock prices and to defraud innocent petrochemical execs from their hard earned bonuses!!! Wake up sheeple! /s
- ASalazarMX 7y agoWhere some people see a disaster, we at SCUM Corp see an opportunity. All that burned forest is brand new real state!
- jokoon 7y agoDon't forget a heatwave that last 1 day or 2 is mostly ok. Once it lasts 4 or 5 or more, heat exhaustion kicks in, because one's body cannot rest from the stress caused by heat.
- tus88 7y agoOh and we're running out of water too. Yippee!
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dluan 7y agoHere in Hawaii we've obliterated temperature records. July, August, September, and November were the hottest respective months ever recorded. For 20 straight consecutive days from Aug to September we set new records for hottest temperatures in a really brutal heat wave. August 2019 was the warmest global ocean temperature on record. It made me realize that while global average temperature is scheduled to increase ~2 degrees, that is just the average. Some places on Earth won't see that much change because of regional climate systems, but other places in the changing vortex will have way more than just 2 degrees. The general consensus here is that 95 degree Honolulu is the new normal.
- KnightOfWords 7y agoOn the other side of the world, we had record temperatures across Europe as well this year. Fewer deaths than the 2003 heatwave though as people were generally better informed of the risks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave These events are only going to become more frequent.
- chewz 7y ago> we had record temperatures across Europe For the record - only in Western Europe - due to changes in circulation patterns. Central and Eastern Europe had rather cool summer and records from beggining of XX century still stand.
- perfunctory 7y ago> It made me realize that while global average temperature is scheduled to increase ~2 degrees, that is just the average. Yep "...temperatures in Siberia up by as much as 35C above historical averages this month" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/27/arctic-warming-scientists-alarmed-by-crazy-temperature-rises https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/27/arctic-w...
- apexalpha 7y agoWow, I just realized that their summer is only starting now, even with all the fires they already have.
- czechdeveloper 7y agoI've read that current fires consumed about 8x the area that is average in this time of year. Crazy
- apexalpha 7y agoThis interactive map from the Guardian really drove it home for me: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-interactive/2019/dec/07/how-big-are-the-fires-burning-on-the-east-coast-of-australia-interactive-map https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-inter...
- femto 7y agoThe official interactive map for the NSW Rural Fire Service is also an eye opener, as it shows the actual areas burnt in roughly real-time. https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/fires-near-me https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/fires-near-me In the past month it started out as isolated black patches, which have now merged into fewer but bigger black patches. Given the heat predicted over the next few days and lack of predicted rain until January, there is every chance that more of the fires will merge. The NSW fires are spread over a distance of 1000km, with the larger individual fires being about 200km in length. The map shows only NSW's fires, so multiply that view by about 6 to account for the rest of the mainland.
- reallydontask 7y agoGiven the heat, solar thermal plants would be a better bet than solar panels, specially given the interior is very sparsely populated and pretty hot. Unless thermal solar plants are affected negatively by the heat too?
- k_ 7y agoafair they already produce more electricity than needed and run their plants something like every other day (read here on HN, but don't have the link atm) because they can't store the excess.
- jamil7 7y agoThe other issue is that too much solar energy in the grid is intefering with existing coal plants due to the way energy pricing and distribution works. It's a bit of a mess but raw production isn't the biggest issue right now.
- genidoi 7y agoAussie here. Our Prime Minister just hopped over to Hawaii[0] whilst bushfires[1] just an hour's drive away from Sydney[2] are toxifying the air to the point of being declared a public health emergency[3]... barely two weeks into bushfire season, with the most intense fires around late Jan/early Feb. To top it all off, the Government is refusing to grant the firefighters additional resources to actually contain the fires[5]. [0] https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/prime-minister-scott-morrison-rejects-calls-for-more-assistance-to-firefighters https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/prime-minister-scott-mo... [1] https://myfirewatch.landgate.wa.gov.au/ https://myfirewatch.landgate.wa.gov.au/ [2] https://twitter.com/healthy_climate/status/1204216373959725056 https://twitter.com/healthy_climate/status/12042163739597250... [3] https://www.9news.com.au/world/nsw-news-sydney-bushfire-smoke-a-public-health-emergency/a5f9d396-43da-4789-b1e5-a411f2154d52 https://www.9news.com.au/world/nsw-news-sydney-bushfire-smok... [4] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/10/sydneys-air-11-times-worse-than-hazardous-levels-as-australias-bushfires-rage https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/10/sydne... [5] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/australia-bushfires-combine-form-mega-fire-north-sydney-191206074513633.html https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/australia-bushfires-c...
- pimmen 7y agoHow is the government response (or lack off) affecting the debate around climate change in Australia? If I understand correctly, the current Australian government does not believe in human caused climate change but still enjoys domestic support from voters. Is that changing? We had a similar, less serious event in Sweden last year during an extraordinary summer with a lot of forest fires, during an election year. The forest fires did not seem to change voters' mind much on the issue, unfortunately. Then again, we allocated a lot more resources than usual to fight the fires, even asking other countries for help.
- shakna 7y ago> How is the government response (or lack off) affecting the debate around climate change in Australia? Denial of resources thanks to denial of debate in the parliament. > If I understand correctly, the current Australian government does not believe in human caused climate change but still enjoys domestic support from voters. Is that changing? Not really. The governments strategy is currently to isolate and intimidate the concerned (scare campaigns, proposal of laws to outlaw "environmental protest terrorism"), whilst repeatedly telling the rest of the country: "we're fine", "we're doing our bit", "the problem doesn't exist" and "we can't survive without coal".
- edhelas 7y agoRepeat after me: "Global warming is a myth and it's not caused by human activity". If we all repeat that together, it will be true.
- shard972 7y agoThis is the standard of discussion on HN now?
- jve 7y agoIf anyone wonders how that looks like on a map... https://www.windy.com/-25.324/133.594?temp,-25.681,133.264,5,m:cWWajRO https://www.windy.com/-25.324/133.594?temp,-25.681,133.264,5... (Zoom out a bit)
- rv-de 7y agoThis is already a classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIy0t5P0CUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIy0t5P0CUQ Afterwards join the folks on /r/collapse.
- zantana 7y agoAny hotter and Midnight Oil is going to have update their lyrics: https://genius.com/Midnight-oil-beds-are-burning-lyrics https://genius.com/Midnight-oil-beds-are-burning-lyrics
- Thorentis 7y agoAs predicted: https://www.9news.com.au/national/sydney-smoke-city-continues-to-suffer-through-toxic-haze-as-heatwave-hits-record/570e4528-b9b2-4b88-8fe1-4bae6c21ce12?ocid=Social-9News&fbclid=IwAR1JWpSW87Sy86cPBf7Pz7FLxn_1_lS658tvDHj4EHVFe3RHAE4ikaBAqfc https://www.9news.com.au/national/sydney-smoke-city-continue...