Hell
by tristero
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| From LakeMac Today |
Catastrophic world-wide climate failure:
The fourth day of a historic heat wave in Australia shattered monthly heat records for the state of Victoria and numerous localities, and caused destructive bush fires to expand their reach. In Victoria, the temperature of 118.2 degrees (47.9 Celsius) on Friday at Horsham and Hopetoun was the hottest December day on record for the state, crushing the old record of 116 degrees (46.6 Celsius) set in 1976.
The ongoing heat wave has set an extraordinary slew of records that are typically broken by fractions of a degree but, in this case, were broken by two degrees or more. Australia set records for the hottest day ever recorded nationwide on both Dec. 17 and 18, with the 19th likely to be ranked at least among the top five hottest days in the country’s history.
One of my oldest and dearest friends immigrated to Sydney from Eastern Europe just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The reports I got from her this week are appalling — unbearable heat, suffocating smoke, and a Trump-loving prime minister vacationing in Hawaii while enormous fires swept Australia.
And the incredibly intense heat wave is continent-wide:
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) reports preliminary data showing that for Dec. 18, the nationally averaged maximum temperature was 107.4 degrees Fahrenheit (41.9 Celsius). This beat the old record of 105.6 degrees (40.9 Celsius), which had been set the day before. Before this heat event, the country’s hottest day was Jan. 7, 2013, which had an average high temperature of 104.5 degrees (40.3 Celsius).
It’s impossible to exaggerate the extent of the disaster. Over 1 million acres on fire in one area alone.
The Bureau of Meteorology increased the fire risk level for the Greater Sydney region to “catastrophic” for Saturday, which is the highest fire danger level. In Penrith, which is about 30 miles west of downtown Sydney, the high temperature is forecast to reach 116.6 degrees (47 Celsius). Penrith is between the Wattle Creek Blaze and the massive Gospers Mountain Fire, which is 1,109,503 acres in size and burning out of control, according to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service. The Gospers Mountain blaze is being called a “mega fire” because of its size.
And here’s an American-centric image to help us imagine the scale of the disaster:
This season, an area about 1.5 times the size of Connecticut has gone up in smoke, particularly from Victoria to New South Wales and Queensland. Satellite-derived data has shown that the country’s emissions of greenhouse gases have increased markedly for November and December because of combustion from these blazes.
Remember that only the average temperature on the Australian continent was 107 degrees. In some places…my God:
Andrea Peace, a meteorologist with the BOM, stated in a video posted on Twitter that the heat wave has been “quite extraordinary.” For example, a Dec. 19 record set in Nullarbor, about 600 miles west of Adelaide. That location reached 121.8 degrees (49.9 Celsius)…
And, of course, Donald Trump, the impeached president of the United States, has no knowledge or understanding of this worldwide disaster. Not “a little knowledge,” not “a dim understanding.” He has no idea.
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Happy Hollandaise everyone!
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