It has been pretty bad here. This [0] might be interesting for anyone wanting to check out how anomalous these temps are against long-term averages. Apparently South Australia had 17 temperature records broken on Thursday (though I can't find the link now).
We (Northern Rivers) haven't had the extremes, but weeks of above-average temps on top of drought have made it dryer here than I've ever seen. The paddocks look more like Vic than the subtropics. My local creek has dried up for the first time anyone here knows of. Potable water tanks are near empty.
To be fair the southern hemisphere only accounts for 31% of the world's landmass and of that Australia is 20% of the total landmass in the southern hemisphere experiencing summer right now.
When I went to jump in the shower this morning (Melbourne) at around 7AM, it was 32deg or so, the taps in the shower were actually too hot for me to touch, I had to use a facecloth over them.
the climate's always changing .. if not nice clean Aus coal exports then S.African brown .. sky is falling in lol .. it's snowing here what global warming lol .. what about Al Gore .. it hasn't warmed since 1996 .. what about the promised ice age .. (etc).
If it wasn't him, they'd be latching on to another strawman. As an Australian who has been living in this heatwave, and as an inhabitant of planet Earth, it's time we ignored the deniers and just got shit done. Theirs is a position borne of self interest and ignorance, and we should stop giving equal credence to a demonstrably incorrect opinion.
> If it wasn't him, they'd be latching on to another strawman.
He's not really a "strawman", he was one of the most visible faces promoting climate alarmism early on, and was a prominent politician. He is easily skewered due to his laughable knowledge of science, and his hypocritical lifestyle.
Now there is a large collection of others who make unsupported alarmist claims, incorrectly relate weather events to global warming, and are complete hypocrites with their resource use. For instance, see the 1,500 private jets that just showed up at Davos...
If you want to make a positive difference, advocate nuclear power. It's the only way to replace 100% of fossil fuels without air pollution.
> In 2015, Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton quipped about the fate of the Pacific Islands in the face of climate change, prompting laughter from then-prime minister Tony Abbott.
> "Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to be… you know, have water lapping at your door," Mr Dutton said.
> Mr Morrison, then the social services minister, pointed out to both men that a microphone was above them."
Last week Morrison visited Fiji as Australian PM and, presumably alluding to the above exchange, the Fijian PM said to him:
> "Here in Fiji, climate change is no laughing matter. From where we are sitting, we cannot imagine how the interests of any single industry can be placed above the welfare of Pacific peoples — vulnerable people in the world over."
Hopefully now that aussies are feeling the heat, they'll elect someone who actually cares about climate change. Australia is the worlds largest exporter of coal, and all those chickens are coming home to roost.
It would be interesting to know which is worse, but it should be pointed out that being stuck without shelter or water in the bush during these conditions will mean you'll die in a matter of hours.
You can survive in extreme heat with low humidity. Once the 'wet bulb' temperature exceeds 35 degrees C, sweating is no longer effective, core temperature rises, and you die.
Extremes of cold must be a different story, about how much insulation can protect core temperature. There's probably a minimum temp at which something like respiration just ceases to work. This article has some good info: https://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/scie...
35˚C extreme? You die? That doesn't sound right. Anecdata: There was a strange heat wave here in Sydney about 7 or 8 years ago, where for a week or two it was 35˚ (and humid) all night, every night. It was uncomfortable, sure, but not extreme heat, I wouldn't say. I've never lived in a house with air-conditioning in Australia (and I grew up somewhere hotter than Sydney, which isn't particularly hot), hardly ever used a fan, even.
Doesn't it? The key point though is that this is wet bulb temperatures. Today, there aren't many areas of the globe where that is experienced.
"A sustained wet-bulb temperature exceeding 35 °C (95 °F) is likely to be fatal even to fit and healthy people, unclothed in the shade next to a fan; at this temperature our bodies switch from shedding heat to the environment, to gaining heat from it."
"Peak heat stress, quantified by the wet-bulb temperature TW, is surprisingly similar across diverse climates today. TW never exceeds 31 °C. Any exceedence of 35 °C for extended periods should induce hyperthermia in humans and other mammals, as dissipation of metabolic heat becomes impossible. While this never happens now, it would begin to occur with global-mean warming of about 7 °C, calling the habitability of some regions into question. With 11–12 °C warming, such regions would spread to encompass the majority of the human population as currently distributed."
Hmm yeah thanks, hadn't heard of that. e.g. "An example of the threshold at which the human body is no longer able to cool itself and begins to overheat is a humidity level of 50% and a high heat of 46 °C (115 °F), as this would indicate a wet-bulb temperature of 35 °C (95 °F)." (wikip)
I live in Sydney but 4 years ago I lived in the tropics. Sydney doesn't get close to tropical levels of humidity. It's a completely different type of heat. 30 degrees with 100% humidity is fairly unbearable for working outdoors. 42 degrees in Sydney is hot but fluids keep you going.
In Townsville, I would experience heat distress doing exercise at 8am due to the humidity. In Sydney, I could do a 5km run in 40 degrees if I wet myself beforehand.
Extreme cold is easier to deal with. Consider, for example, how many different kinds of heaters there are: wood stoves, gas stoves, gas or oil furnaces, heat pumps, steam radiators, etc. And some of them are centuries old technology. In contrast there isn't nearly the same diversity in cooling equipment of equivalent effectiveness.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 102 ms ] thread[0] http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/awap/temp/index.jsp?colour=colour&...
Fortunately there wasn't a repeat of that day, but the scary thing is it's still only January.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_southeastern_Australia_he...
The actual values aren't typical though - many temperature records being broken, bushfires in places that haven't experienced them in the past, etc.
Just thought we should get those out of the way.
He's not really a "strawman", he was one of the most visible faces promoting climate alarmism early on, and was a prominent politician. He is easily skewered due to his laughable knowledge of science, and his hypocritical lifestyle.
Now there is a large collection of others who make unsupported alarmist claims, incorrectly relate weather events to global warming, and are complete hypocrites with their resource use. For instance, see the 1,500 private jets that just showed up at Davos...
If you want to make a positive difference, advocate nuclear power. It's the only way to replace 100% of fossil fuels without air pollution.
> "Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to be… you know, have water lapping at your door," Mr Dutton said.
> Mr Morrison, then the social services minister, pointed out to both men that a microphone was above them."
Last week Morrison visited Fiji as Australian PM and, presumably alluding to the above exchange, the Fijian PM said to him:
> "Here in Fiji, climate change is no laughing matter. From where we are sitting, we cannot imagine how the interests of any single industry can be placed above the welfare of Pacific peoples — vulnerable people in the world over."
- From https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-18/climate-change-is-no-...
Hopefully now that aussies are feeling the heat, they'll elect someone who actually cares about climate change. Australia is the worlds largest exporter of coal, and all those chickens are coming home to roost.
That same thought was what kept me going through the long Howard years...How wrong I was!
I guess you could survive longer in extreme heat?
Extremes of cold must be a different story, about how much insulation can protect core temperature. There's probably a minimum temp at which something like respiration just ceases to work. This article has some good info: https://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/scie...
"A sustained wet-bulb temperature exceeding 35 °C (95 °F) is likely to be fatal even to fit and healthy people, unclothed in the shade next to a fan; at this temperature our bodies switch from shedding heat to the environment, to gaining heat from it."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature#Wet-bulb_...
"Peak heat stress, quantified by the wet-bulb temperature TW, is surprisingly similar across diverse climates today. TW never exceeds 31 °C. Any exceedence of 35 °C for extended periods should induce hyperthermia in humans and other mammals, as dissipation of metabolic heat becomes impossible. While this never happens now, it would begin to occur with global-mean warming of about 7 °C, calling the habitability of some regions into question. With 11–12 °C warming, such regions would spread to encompass the majority of the human population as currently distributed."
https://www.pnas.org/content/107/21/9552.full
In Townsville, I would experience heat distress doing exercise at 8am due to the humidity. In Sydney, I could do a 5km run in 40 degrees if I wet myself beforehand.
All these sensors could be grouped closely together.
If they are not... What does that mean? Australia is huge.
ATM it's a safe bet the Hottest places in the world in the past 24 hours are in the Southern Hemisphere. Would that mean anything?