Aussie Summer

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Courtesy of Doug Greville:

"You know you're in an Australian Summer when:-

a. The best parking space is determined by shade instead of distance

b. Hot water comes out of both taps.

c. You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.

d. The temperature drops below 35c and you feel a little chilly.

e. You discover that in February it only takes two fingers to steer your car.

f. You discover that you can get sunburnt through your car window.

g. You develop a fear of metal car door handles.

h. You break a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30am.

i. Your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, "What if I get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement and cook to death?"

j. You realise that asphalt has a liquid state.

k. Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to prevent them from laying hard-boiled eggs.

l. The cows are giving evaporated milk.

m. The trees are whistling for the dogs.

n. While walking back barefoot to your car from the beach, you do a tightrope act on the white lines in the car park.

o. You catch a cold from having the air-con full blast while you sleep during the night.

p. You learn that David Jones isn't a department store, it’s a temple to worship air-conditioning"

[Max Hedges]

others are

when you sit on the car seat in the sun you burn your bottom

when you take the dogs to work they run straight to the dam and don't move

here's a picture of a storm rolling in

Max

WOW... what an AMAZING photo Max!!! It's totally gorgeous to look at. Looks like it means to get pretty wicked too

[Max Hedges]

this time a dust storm going by

Max

[Pedr]

You darling lady!!

We are scared witless of big storms like that at this time of year. Saturday last it was 42 degrees celcius here in Adelaide. ( Sorry ain't working out an imperial conversion at 2.30 am )

...And those big trees in the centre of the picture aren't just recovering from winter, they're "Gum Trees" - Eucalyptus and they don't loose their leaves unless they are extremely stressed or close to death from lack of water.

The really dissappointing thing to us is that most of the time lately those storms only do damage and don't bring the much needed water that we are desperate for. They are responsible for a huge number of bushfires ( wildfires, forrest fires ) that are caused by lightning strikes on extremely hot days.

At the moment I drive around with a fire-fighting backpack in the back of my car, for the times when we go out of the city limits.

We'll all be off high alert by the time you get here.....providing ofcourse there's some rain by then.

Ours is a country of harsh extremes. Snow covered mountains and scourcing deserts all on the one continent.

( In a North American Senatorial accent...or like PM John Howard ) " Global Warming....what the hell is Global Warming....is that some idea to fight of an ice age"

Still looking forward to your arrival

Pedr

Picture courtesy of ABC Australia. www.abc.net.au

[Pedr]

And this is one Elvis that we'll listen to all day when it's a belter ( HOT!! )

It's actually an Ericson Sky crane. One of Two recently purchased from the US, that have a dedicated role of fire-fighting. They drop 8000 litres of water in 60 seconds.

Picture courtesy ABC www.abc.net.au

[Pedr]

Unlike your collective joints at the moment where it is all cold and icy and covered in snow...

Here its tinder dry and has been for a while.

Pedr

picture courtesy of www.farmerdave.com.au

"These poor buggers are getting some relief from the heat as you can see there is practicaly no grass on the red country, but there is zero on the grey soil..however there is an old addage out here, "you stick to the clay in the droughts and it'll stick to you in the wet"".

[Keith Webb]

I spent a couple of hours in the air over Temora on Friday - many areas just don't even have dead grass - it's turned to dust and blown away too.

There's a CMP in this pic - the group of sheds just under the port wingtip belongs to Ian Styles and to the left is one of his F60Ls.

42C is 107.6F.

Originally posted by Pedr
[B]You darling lady!!

We are scared witless of big storms like that at this time of year. Saturday last it was 42 degrees celcius here in Adelaide. ( Sorry ain't working out an imperial conversion at 2.30 am )

...And those big trees in the centre of the picture aren't just recovering from winter, they're "Gum Trees" - Eucalyptus and they don't loose their leaves unless they are extremely stressed or close to death from lack of water.

Then wicked it is ... lightening, especially the dry lightening with no rain, is a pretty scarey thing in these cases (along with human caused fires) I imagine everyone feeling a lot of anxiety. Wildfires scare me. Pretty hard to impossible to stop once they start and run and when lightening strikes start many in different places at the same time then it gets extremely scarey indeed. Every year in the hot and dry/droughty seasons seems we're watching the news about major runaway fires.

I only pray for rain for you folks ...

Karmen

[Keith Webb]

This was sent to me - taken at Yass last Sunday evening by a friend:

[Robert Farmer]

And heres what that storm left behind in Canberra

[Robert Farmer]

And another

[Keith Webb]

Hope Jif and Ma don't see this... they'll think Canberra in Summer is like Canada in Winter!

Yikes ... hail!!!!!!!! I can't believe how heavy/dense it is. Sure looks like snow ... shall I bring my mukluks?

Ma Yappy

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Originally posted by Keith Webb
Hope Jif and Ma don't see this... they'll think Canberra in Summer is like Canada in Winter!

Keefy, that ain't what I think it is, is it? Just went through the first real blizzard we've seen in a couple of years...