Saturday 4 January 2014

One scorcher down and one to go!

I am writing this post so I have a record of this hot weather we are having in our usually temperate region which I am finding almost unbearable. Records are being broken across the state and some of our towns out west are recording temperatures in the mid to high forties. Yesterday the temperature here in town rose to 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 Fahrenheit) and, in some areas, the bitumen was melting. Before the heat hit, I took a few photos of some of the beautiful dahlias in the garden as I thought they would be badly hit by the heat.

I just love this dahlia with its multicoloured petals and, obviously the bee was quite enamored with it as well. 


This one isn't quite as unusual but it is still beautiful. Dahlias must be very hardy as they all survived the 39 degrees and lived to see another day.


However, the Stevia was struggling even after it had been watered in the late afternoon. 

 I couldn't stand the heat in the house anymore so went outside and sat in the shade of the macadamia nut tree and sprayed myself with water which made the warm wind feel a little cooler. A chopper flew over and I wondered whether it was transporting a patient to Brisbane after an emergency or checking out a fire. 


I poured some water onto the grass the guinea pigs were eating and they seem to enjoy just lying on it to cool down. I had a discussion with them about the heat and I think we all decided it was just absolutely ridiculous for our region to be getting this hot. :-)

Today the temperature will be even higher so the plan is to get out of the house and go to a movie for a few hours and sit in the aircon. Spare a thought for my girl and her family as they will be driving back home through the Outback in forty degree heat. However, they are used to the heat and, if you choose to live in Outback areas, the high temperatures come with the territory. However, other areas of Queensland aren't used to such heat so it is quite a big deal for us.

Thankfully we will be back to our cooler temperatures in the mid-twenties next week and life will get back to normal again. At the moment we are just in 'survival mode' around here! :-)

What is the weather like at the moment where you live? 





 

12 comments:

  1. Oh that heat sounds terrible, I dread our heat waves. That dahlia is beautiful with its two toned petals. The animals tend to really suffer the heat just before christmas I had to bring my bunnies inside as one was heavily pregnant and she end up having a litter of four inside, so hence I still have her inside in an indoor cage until the bunnies are big enough to move out. I hope it cools down a little for you soon xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it is hot already Sharon. Almost 29 degrees at 8.15am. At the moment there is a lovely breeze but we will have to shut the house up soon to keep the cool air in and the hot air out. Glad your bunnies are okay.

      Delete
  2. We are very lucky at the moment our temps are mid to late 20's which is just gorgeous! We had days before Christmas which were over 40 & it nearly killed me getting organised for Christmas. If we had those temps now I would just say "it can wait until tomorrow!"
    Stay cool!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Chel, also suffering this little heat wave and blogged about it this morning.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh I hope your heat wave passes. I'm sending you over some of our cold air. Let me know if you want any more lol. It's really stormy here and lots of weather warnings. Temp to drop tomorrow and to be between 1 and 3 oC. I will be thinking of you when I'm lighting the fire (that's on top of the oil heating ... I hate the cold)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Chel, Yes we suffering too. Last night we had all our doors and windows open and a standard fan outside on the verandah blowing cool air in. Actually got some sleep. I've just been down potting up cuttings of a neighmour's frangipani branches that were knocked down in the storm the other night. I also subscribe to the spray bottle, or wet face cloth; we do have a portable air con but it barely keeps up. Hope you're ok today and that the cool change is a good one for us all. I feel for the farmers out west trying to save stock and crops.
    Barb

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bring on the cooler weather. We are all hibernating in the aircon. That is a fantastic photo with the bee Nanna Chel - great timing! Enjoy the movies :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's hot here too. We're tending to hibernate during the middle of the day and get outside to do chores in the later afternoon. Keeping all the animals cool is number one priority.

    Hope it cools down soon for you.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh Nanna Chel, I sympathise with you.

    Not hot here at the moment, only 27C today, but last week was really testing. Apparently in South Australia 2013 was the hottest year on record!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yep. Horrible here too. It's currently 34.5C inside the house - totally unheard of in our house in the 12 yrs we've been here. Usually the wide eaves, loads of cross-flow ventilation, and ceiling fans are more than adequate. Motivation - nil. The storms have all gone around us and the little rain we've had is all out being adequate for a day's watering. Won't be sorry to see summer long gone. Really feeling for the elderly, sick and the animal world who are really doing it tough, and the farmers of course.
    Maddie
    Love the photo with the bee, too.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for your comments everyone. We went to the shopping centre at 11am and got home at 5pm! We went to the movies while we were there and that took up nearly 3 hours. The shopping centre was packed. Lots of people were just sitting around obviously trying to keep cool. We have always been able to cope just with our ceiling fans in the heat as our summers aren't normally this hot but having a number of days with such extreme heat has proven to be very hard to cope with. I can't wait till Tuesday when the temps will really drop.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Last year I felt quite threatened by the heat and fires around our region. I just given birth to Archie and had suffered a terrible and long recovery with a spinal block headache for weeks. One of the days we all piled in the car and drove 2 and half hours to Canberra to take my mind of it. So I know where you are coming from. I am praying for you that it cools down and you all stay safe.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for leaving your comments as I love to hear from my readers. As soon as I check them they will be published. If for some reason you have trouble leaving a comment feel free to email me directly by filling out the 'Contact Me' form on the sidebar at the right.

Printfriendly

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...