We have a garden full of coleus -- i plucked some and set in water for "over-wintering" as we will have frost this evening. The dahlia's don't have to come out of the ground until a really hard frost, but will be ready for them.
Just to add some contrast...we have a maximum of 39C forecast for tomorrow and 40C on Thursday. With 90 km/h winds also forecast for tomorrow, it'll be difficult to avoid fires breaking out. Especially as it seems to be a thing now for nut jobs to start them as soon as we get a bit of heat.
As predicted, a number of fires broke out today and people were evacuated from their homes. No homes lost yet. As it's still spring, we're expecting a pretty hot summer this year. Right now it's 39C at 5pm 'feels like 42C' according to the weather bureau. And it does!
Hmm, things aren't looking good for some people. The fire 6km from us is getting out of hand and we can hear distant explosions, apparently high voltage transformers going off according to an electrician we know living in the fire's path. Some of our friends and colleagues have evacuated their homes. As an aside, for you Canadians, we lease fire fighting aircraft and operators from you which are dropping retardant right now. They need to fly to Busselton, 250 km away, to reload.
We need snow.
We need snow.
Unfortunately ten houses have been lost so far. A friend is a volunteer firefighter and tells us there were two 'burnovers' where the fire truck is engulfed and the firefighters inside deploy an external water spray system, pull down reflective blankets, and wait it out. Luckily no one was badly hurt. Scary stuff.
I think we have enough now...(source: NRK)
In the meantime we got a floodings again in Belgium and parts of northern France, in some regions (like arround Bouillon) 200l/m rain fell in less than 48h, and that on oversaturated ground as it's almost non stop raining in Belgium since october. So quiet a few rivers flooded, the most known are the Lys (aka de Leie in Belgium) and the Dender, going to the Schelde/Escaut and the Semois, going to the the Maas/Meuse. It's not the same region of the big floodings of a few years ago, it's the other western side of the Ardenne and the old County of Hainaut (both now partly in Belgium, partly in France) that are affected by those heavy rains. In France, in the region of Saint Omer and Calais there are similar floodings arround the river Aa i hear also...
Rain here in the Scottish wetback is almost a part of everyday life. I'f it gets much worse we might develop gills
I don't know which is worse: massive rain or very cold and clear.
It's been wetter than normal up here in NE England near the coast but we were spared most of the last storm.
The last time we had serious flooding was in June of 2008/9 when Morpeth and sourrounding areas was flooded (river Coquet).
I should add that I wouldn't wish either on anyone affected by weather events. I can't imagine the horror of having your home damaged by flooding - it's the worst type of damage with the repairs and drying out taking months, not to mention the cost.
It's been wetter than normal up here in NE England near the coast but we were spared most of the last storm.
The last time we had serious flooding was in June of 2008/9 when Morpeth and sourrounding areas was flooded (river Coquet).
I should add that I wouldn't wish either on anyone affected by weather events. I can't imagine the horror of having your home damaged by flooding - it's the worst type of damage with the repairs and drying out taking months, not to mention the cost.
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Just heard on the BBC news that Sweden reached -44C last night. 😵
At least you Scandinavians are geared up for very low temepratures and lots of snow.
In the UK we don't have the machinery needed to move deep snow from roads and railways so the whole country grinds to a halt if there's more than a few cms.
I can't even imagine that temperature! By polar contrast, Marble Bar in the north west of our State suffered +49C last Saturday.
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And today a miracle happened in Belgium, the sun is out and bright shining on the swamped fields down here😀😛😀. It's the first time i see the sun in full force in at least 2 months...
Looks like some kind of record cold temperature was registered earlier this night at Enontekiö Airport located in the most North-Western part of Finland (68° 21′ 52″ N, 23° 25′ 39″ E), -44,3°C at 2:10 AM, 5th Jan 2024.
The weather record for Enontekiö Airport is now archived at: https://web.archive.org/web/20240105040149/https://www.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/saa/enontekiö
Here in south around the capital area we have had mostly around -20°C for the past few days, went the other day outside for a walk, with right clothing no problem, rather refreshing, but I had to press the mittens against the face once in a while.
The weather record for Enontekiö Airport is now archived at: https://web.archive.org/web/20240105040149/https://www.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/saa/enontekiö
Here in south around the capital area we have had mostly around -20°C for the past few days, went the other day outside for a walk, with right clothing no problem, rather refreshing, but I had to press the mittens against the face once in a while.