We kicked off here at a very smokey 4C (felt like 2C) and 27C is our expected max today while 28C is expected tomorrow before we hit the 30C's again for the weekend and Sunday will be our next test with 31C expected with those gusty winds returning.

We're down to 14 active fires in this region now and hopefully we can get that down a bit more before Sunday gets here.

Now as the breeze changes directions and the smoke from the fires to the SE clears off we wait until the next lot of smoke from the fires to the NE gets here, then that will clear off before we'll get the smoke from the fire to the NW, then the westerly should set in for the afternoon and send it all out to the coast again (so it'll be a smoke on, smoke off, on, off, on, off, sort of day here).

It also looks like the road workers wern't going to be told for the 4th time this week by the cops to stop work clear off the highway (which is the main road through this village) so it seems that some sense has finally sunk into them.

Sadly a 4th life has been claimed by these fires. :-(

Anyhow, as I'm having a day off I might just enjoy a few beers today.

Cheers.

Finally got some rain- enough to not have much effect on the temperature, but bump the RH up another 15-20%
So it's gone from unpleasant, to very unpleasant.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Sorry to hear you have suffered a dose of "ineffective" rain - I suffered much the same during one of my visits to China and know exactly what you are talking about :-(

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I've lived here in Darwin since 1983, and I still can't get used to the fact that it can be pouring down rain for an hour, visibility less than 50 metres, and if there isn't any wind then the temperature barely changes. I remember winters as a kid, where it might have been miserably cold, but even just some slight rain and it would get even colder (and more miserable).

The present outlook for rain here, apart from scattered rubbish, is nothing of note till late December, maybe..



Unfortunately for the fires in southern Queensland & north eastern New South Wales- there's a big heatwave developing in northern Western Australia which is expected to end up moving over to the fire affected areas by mid to late next week. If winds develop in the area around the same time, fire conditions are expected to be on par- or even worse- than they have been during the worst periods of the last couple of weeks.
Chance of rain in the fire affected areas in the next week- flying pigs are more likely...

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Grant
Darwin NT

It was a strangely smoke free start here this morning (we havn't to many of those over the last 2 months), but we'll see how that goes once the westerly wind arrives, though tomorrow will tell how good the last 2 days of back burning and bulldozing firebreaks went with gusty winds that may push embers in this direction (thankfully it's now expected to be 4C cooler than the originally forecasted 31C).

The main problem will be the dry thunderstorms that are expected here over the next 3 afternoons/evenings and the new fires that they could start. :-(

Cheers.

After a hot, windy, smokey and dusty weekend as well as a smokey start today (for some reason we're "threading the eye of the needle" here ATM with this easterly wind as there's smokey skies both north and south with a blue strip overhead) we actually did pretty well here on the fire front and were now down to just 14 fires from the 17 we began with.

I must say that I was getting sick of the coughing, sneezing and choking over the last few days, but with this clean air ATM I feel 100% better (maybe I better get an asthma test done on my next bi-annual), though sadly that smoke will return soon enough as a wind change is due here by noon.

Our run of high 20's is about end with 28C expected again here today and then 30C+ temps expected through the 6 days at least with low double digit minimums instead of single digits. The humidity during the day lately has also been on the ridiculous side of things sitting around 10-20% and 60-80% overnight so it looks like the wet season is still a long way away. :-(

1 good thing is that only lite winds are expected over the next 6 days so with some luck we can get that local fire count down further.

Cheers.

G'day Wiggo

G'day Grant

I always forget --- Downunder --- you're just starting your summer.

be well and stay safe.

G'day Wiggo

G'day Grant

I always forget --- Downunder --- you're just starting your summer.

Unfortunately this time around it has started very early (although up here in Darwin we don't get Summer, Winter etc. Just the Wet season & the Dry season, with the unofficial Buildup heading in to the Wet season).


What is it now, a couple of weeks later, and you can still see the smoke from the fires on the satellite images. And as the wind picks up each day you can see it go from smudges over the land to streaming out to sea.

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Grant
Darwin NT

G'day Byron, sadly we've been putting up with these bushfires for 10 weeks now in this region of NE N.S.W. and they're likely to last that much longer before they go out.

Well the coughing, sneezing and choking continues here as the smoke from the 3 huge fires around here take turns at smoking us out.

We reached 33C here yesterday and 31C is expected today, but thankfully no gusty winds are are expected until next week and we may get some of that wet stuff here over the weekend, though the breeze has been has been continually swinging around all points of the compass (of which the W-SW sector is smoke free, but it hasn't come from that direction much).

Anyhow I'm going to enjoy the rest of this coolness (currently 20C, feels like 19C, here) until this easterly turns northerly.

Cheers.

I was finally able to get a couple of loads of washing out on the line yesterday, while we enjoyed a hot and smokeless morning, and that was dry in an hour as we hit 30C. The easterly change cooled us down mid afternoon, but that also brought in wall of smoke that is still hanging around like a smelly fog.

We had a warm night here last night (15C is warm for us here) and an overnight storm did nothing to help, but it did leave 17mm behind and more is expected today, while a more comfortable 26C is expected today and hopefully a northerly change might take this smoke away.

Cheers.

Had yet another storm go around us last night- not so much as a single drop fell here. At least it dropped the temperature down to 23°c for a while. Generally it's been 26°-27° to 33°-35° and humid, but bugger all rain.
Our average rainfall for November is 143mm; so far we've had 84mm, and 72mm of that was in just 2 falls.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I was finally able to get a couple of loads of washing out on the line yesterday, while we enjoyed a hot and smokeless morning, and that was dry in an hour as we hit 30C. The easterly change cooled us down mid-afternoon, but that also brought in wall of smoke that is still hanging around like a smelly fog.

We had a warm night here last night (15C is warm for us here) and an overnight storm did nothing to help, but it did leave 17mm behind and more is expected today, while a more comfortable 26C is expected today and hopefully a northerly change might take this smoke away.

Cheers.

G'day wiggo,

G'day Grant,


I have been watching on TV news the terrible forest fires Downunder :(

did you see this Video:

Koala reunited with hero grandma who saved him from fire,

A badly burned koala that was rescued crying and screaming from Australia's bushfires,

has been reunited with the heroic grandma who saved its life.

CNN affiliate Nine News Australia reports. Source: Nine News Australia

you can watch the four (4) minute video here:

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/11/21/burned-koala-reunited-with-rescuer-australia-pkg-vpx.nine-news-australia

G'evening Byron, I hope that you're doing well?

Yes there are many videos online, but not just Koalas are involved, and what you may not see is the other wildfire that come bouncing/hopping/running out of those fires on fire and leaving a trail of fire behind them.

When we use to do a blackout around the village we always had to keep an eye out for rabbits are they could cause problems behind a burnout line, but these fires are having much larger and faster wildlife doing the same thing and in greater numbers which is also causing big problems. In fact there are several areas around here now that are encircled by these fires and that will certainly destroy a lot of wildlife and some small farmlet communities. :-(

Estimates in this state alone (mostly in my region) puts the land loss at over 1,500,000 hectares (about 3,710,000 acres) now so far with most of it being state forests and national park areas.

We're down to 12 major fires now in this region, but I hope that these rolling thunderstorms we're having ATM don't start any new 1's.

Cheers.

With the thunderstorms over the last few days our fire count for this region has gone from 12 back up to 26 due to lightening strikes and another storm front is about 60-90 mins away. We reached 28C here today (felt like 24C).

Cheers.

With the thunderstorms over the last few days our fire count for this region has gone from 12 back up to 26 due to lightening strikes and another storm front is about 60-90 mins away. We reached 28C here today (felt like 24C).

Cheers.

G'day Wiggo,
in Vancouver, in our summers our humidity runs at 70% to 80% so when the temp gets 27 C --- it's really hot :)
where you live what is your humidity run at?
Cheers.

With the thunderstorms over the last few days our fire count for this region has gone from 12 back up to 26 due to lightening strikes and another storm front is about 60-90 mins away. We reached 28C here today (felt like 24C).

Cheers.

G'day Wiggo,
in Vancouver, in our summers our humidity runs at 70% to 80% so when the temp gets 27 C --- it's really hot :)
where you live what is your humidity run at?
Cheers.

G'day Byron,
We usually have 30-40% humidity here on top of this mountain range during the day, but of late it's been getting down to around the 10-20% range at times.

As for the fires we should get an update in about 90mins to find out if any more fires got started and more storms are expected over the next few days.

Cheers.

Mother Nature will likely put out the Cave Fire here in California Tomorrow.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-cave-fire-mountains-above-santa-barbara-evacuations-containment-live-updates-2019-11-26/
Hopefully the rain ends our fire season.

1.5 million hectares (about 3.7 million acres) of land have now been burned in this state alone since mid September. :-(

Thankfully no new fires were started around here (so far), but there were many started further south by lightening strikes and wet haystacks.

A warm and windy afternoon is expected here today with a top of 29C so several of these fires may get a boot along again.

Cheers.

in Vancouver, in our summers our humidity runs at 70% to 80% so when the temp gets 27 C --- it's really hot :)

Here in Darwin during the Wet & Buildup 27°c is often the minimum, with the humidity in the high 80s (or higher). During the day temperatures have bene getting up around 36°c, but at least the humidity has only been around 50-60%. When it gets more like rain, the maximum temperatures tend to be around 32° to 33°, but the humidity is generally around 75%+ unless it actually rains, but if there's not much wind then the temperature can still be 30° (or higher) and the humidity 95%+; extremely unpleasant...

---

Grant
Darwin NT

in Vancouver, in our summers our humidity runs at 70% to 80% so when the temp gets 27 C --- it's really hot :)

Here in Darwin during the Wet & Buildup 27°c is often the minimum, with the humidity in the high 80s (or higher). During the day temperatures have bene getting up around 36°c, but at least the humidity has only been around 50-60%. When it gets more like rain, the maximum temperatures tend to be around 32° to 33°, but the humidity is generally around 75%+ unless it actually rains, but if there's not much wind then the temperature can still be 30° (or higher) and the humidity 95%+; extremely unpleasant...

Now there's the reason that I won't pass the Tropic of Capricorn unless it is winter these days (and pretty much of the eastern seaboard unless it's well south). ;-)

Cheers.