Australia is on fire

[jimbob]

Oh wow.

I feel like Australia doesn't get anything like enough recognition for being a total shitshow right now. It's easily Trump-level stupid, though admittedly with less geopolitical importance.

Yup, basically it's the Anglosphere that has lost the plot, and the countries that haven't have two official
languages

[Bird on a Fire]

Pretty much, although New Zealand seems ok still, she places like Brazil and Hungary are also going f.cking nuts.

[dyqik]

Oh wow.

I feel like Australia doesn't get anything like enough recognition for being a total shitshow right now. It's easily Trump-level stupid, though admittedly with less geopolitical importance.

Yup, basically it's the Anglosphere that has lost the plot, and the countries that haven't have two official
languages

It's only the bits of the anglosphere where Murdoch owns a chunk of the media.

Canada, New Zealand, Belize, etc. all fine.

[Squeak]

Oh wow.

I feel like Australia doesn't get anything like enough recognition for being a total shitshow right now. It's easily Trump-level stupid, though admittedly with less geopolitical importance.

Our conservative party saw off the threat of hard right splinter parties in the 1990s and since by adopting many of their policies but they do it with a boring veneer so that they're not nearly so eye catching as Trump or Johnson. But Trump takes inspiration for migration policy from Australia; we briefly had a tiny carbon tax that worked for reducing emissions, until the Conservatives scrapped it; we subsidise massive new coal mines; and we have a bunch of tax treats for owners of wealth that are either unique or nearly unique globally. We're very, very good at giving to the haves and ignoring the have nots.

Still, the PM has just apologised for going on holiday during the bushfire mess so I guess even he understands that holibobs while volunteers are dying is a bad look.

Personally, I don't give a sh.t if he has a week on the beach - he's not directing operations. What annoys me is the complete lack of leadership to date, that's left these volunteers so vulnerable.

[Martin_B]

As usual, Squeak is wise

[Squeak]

To give a hint of the patchiness, I'm sitting in my mum's comfortable airconditioning, at no risk of harm.

It's a designated catastrophic weather day (46C, windy, skies all yellow-grey) and we're 15km from an uncontrolled bushfire that's now too big and dangerous for residents in the fire zone to leave. The radio is doing constant updates on the fire, trying to keep people calm and advise them on how to keep safe (get in your bathtub and cover yourself with wet wool blankets). The fire is in the Adelaide Hills, threatening a series of small towns that are now basically suburbs of the city. It's a tiny nothing, compared with the fires near Sydney but still nasty enough.

[Martin_B]

Just seen a news report on South Australia. Stay safe, Squeak.

[jimbob]

Oh wow.

I feel like Australia doesn't get anything like enough recognition for being a total shitshow right now. It's easily Trump-level stupid, though admittedly with less geopolitical importance.

Yup, basically it's the Anglosphere that has lost the plot, and the countries that haven't have two official
languages

It's only the bits of the anglosphere where Murdoch owns a chunk of the media.

Canada, New Zealand, Belize, etc. all fine.

Yes, I had also said that Murdoch had been a pernicious influence in those countries.

TBH I'd forgotten about Belize.

[Chris Preston]

It has been an interesting day. It just touched 47 C here this afternoon (minimum overnight was 34, which occurred just before 5 a.m.). Not a record. There is plenty of smoke around. There is a large fire about 15 km to the E, another 20 km to the NW, a third 10 km north of that and one 30 km to the west. Wind change has just come in, but it is still 39 C. Currently 33 km/hr, but tipped to increase in strength as the change moves through. Good thing is relative humidity has increased to 17%. It has been as low as 10%.

Going to be another night of keeping everything tight, this time to keep the smoke, rather than the heat out.

[bjn]

I’ve got a school mate who is in the RFS fighting the fires on Newnes Plateau in the Blue Mountains behind Sydney. He’s exhausted, been fighting fires for weeks, but makes a good show of it regardless. Has some scary videos of what they are up against.

My brother has a house that backs onto ancient bush lands, which lead down into the huge Morton national park. Fortunately it’s cooler where he is and the fires are far away. However it’s only December and if it kicks off down there, his entire street will be gone.

As for Morrison. No, he’s not running the fire fighting efforts. But by going on holiday he demonstrably doesn’t give a sh.t, to the point of not even giving a sh.t about the optics.

[Squeak]

I’ve got a school mate who is in the RFS fighting the fires on Newnes Plateau in the Blue Mountains behind Sydney. He’s exhausted, been fighting fires for weeks, but makes a good show of it regardless. Has some scary videos of what they are up against.

My brother has a house that backs onto ancient bush lands, which lead down into the huge Morton national park. Fortunately it’s cooler where he is and the fires are far away. However it’s only December and if it kicks off down there, his entire street will be gone.

As for Morrison. No, he’s not running the fire fighting efforts. But by going on holiday he demonstrably doesn’t give a sh.t, to the point of not even giving a sh.t about the optics.

I've done quite a lot of fieldwork on Newnes Plateau. I would *not* want to be up there this week. 4WD only, with lots of overhanging eucalypts and dense tea tree thickets in the damper areas. Lovely, lovely pyrogenic vegetation. It would be easy to take a wrong turn in low vis conditions.

All power to your school mate.

[Squeak]

It has been an interesting day. It just touched 47 C here this afternoon (minimum overnight was 34, which occurred just before 5 a.m.). Not a record. There is plenty of smoke around. There is a large fire about 15 km to the E, another 20 km to the NW, a third 10 km north of that and one 30 km to the west. Wind change has just come in, but it is still 39 C. Currently 33 km/hr, but tipped to increase in strength as the change moves through. Good thing is relative humidity has increased to 17%. It has been as low as 10%.

Going to be another night of keeping everything tight, this time to keep the smoke, rather than the heat out.

*Waves* Hi ChrisP! Such lovely weather you've turned on for my visit. From memory, you're in the suburbs and safe, apart from the smoke.

For those of you not glued to local news, the South Australian fires have put four firies in hospital with burns and smoke inhalation, and someone died when they crashed their car while trying to escape. People opened their property gates to let animals run away so all the traffic had to move slowly to dodge panicked cows and horses. As Chris says, the cool change should make things much better tomorrow, so long as the expected overnight lightning doesn't set too many new fires.

The NSW fires have destroyed at least 800 buildings, two firies died when their truck rolled, and a few more got badly burned. And there is no way to travel between Sydney and the west of the state. NSW is expecting temperatures in the mid-30s, so things will be bad there again.

What a pity there's nothing the Australian government can do reduce the severity of future fires or to better resource the volunteers who love doing this.

[tenchboy]

It has been an interesting day. It just touched 47 C here this afternoon (minimum overnight was 34, which occurred just before 5 a.m.). Not a record. There is plenty of smoke around. There is a large fire about 15 km to the E, another 20 km to the NW, a third 10 km north of that and one 30 km to the west. Wind change has just come in, but it is still 39 C. Currently 33 km/hr, but tipped to increase in strength as the change moves through. Good thing is relative humidity has increased to 17%. It has been as low as 10%.

Going to be another night of keeping everything tight, this time to keep the smoke, rather than the heat out.

Would the smoke kill off the spider mite on yer green beans?
Every cloud, as they say.

[Matatouille]

I’ve got a school mate who is in the RFS fighting the fires on Newnes Plateau in the Blue Mountains behind Sydney. He’s exhausted, been fighting fires for weeks, but makes a good show of it regardless.

If most of the firefighters like him are volunteers, are there provisions for them getting pay when on protracted firefighting duties, or helping out their employers for extended absences of staff? I'd imagine it could be very disruptive to one's income and job security, aside from the risk to life and limb.

[Squeak]

I’ve got a school mate who is in the RFS fighting the fires on Newnes Plateau in the Blue Mountains behind Sydney. He’s exhausted, been fighting fires for weeks, but makes a good show of it regardless.

If most of the firefighters like him are volunteers, are there provisions for them getting pay when on protracted firefighting duties, or helping out their employers for extended absences of staff? I'd imagine it could be very disruptive to one's income and job security, aside from the risk to life and limb.

Nope. Who needs to get paid in the lead up to Christmas? And every small business can afford to lose staff without notice for weeks on end. :/

A few weeks ago, firies were paying for petrol for fire trucks out of their own pockets, because that's how we show them that we support the work they do. :/

[Chris Preston]

Would the smoke kill off the spider mite on yer green beans?
Every cloud, as they say.

Sadly not as the wind has turned and the smoke is now blowing the other way. Still 30 C though at 9 p.m. So much for a cool change. Only dropped the temperature by 17 C.

[Chris Preston]

I’ve got a school mate who is in the RFS fighting the fires on Newnes Plateau in the Blue Mountains behind Sydney. He’s exhausted, been fighting fires for weeks, but makes a good show of it regardless.

If most of the firefighters like him are volunteers, are there provisions for them getting pay when on protracted firefighting duties, or helping out their employers for extended absences of staff? I'd imagine it could be very disruptive to one's income and job security, aside from the risk to life and limb.

Nope. Who needs to get paid in the lead up to Christmas? And every small business can afford to lose staff without notice for weeks on end. :/

A few weeks ago, firies were paying for petrol for fire trucks out of their own pockets, because that's how we show them that we support the work they do. :/

Possibly the only good thing about the current fires is that they have affected Sydney badly. This might be just the catalyst needed to put enough pressure on the government to change a few policies.

[Squeak]

Possibly the only good thing about the current fires is that they have affected Sydney badly. This might be just the catalyst needed to put enough pressure on the government to change a few policies.

I have thought something very similar. There's a lot of rich and powerful people who have been breathing smoke for a month now, with no end in sight. And presumably some of them have asthmatic relatives who they care about.

[Squeak]

Now we can start to put some numbers on the health impact of the smoke.

The people who run the annual flu tracking survey have compared the rate of possible smoke symptoms in the NSW for zone with controls in Hobart where the air has stayed nice.

https://info.flutracking.net/insight/

As one of their controls, they kindly sent me the primary results.

[Sciolus]

I was wondering if there would be some interesting epidemiology out of this, but I'm not sure how you separate the effects of the smoke from the heat.

[Chris Preston]

Probably would not be that hard. Smoke is going to produce respiratory illnesses. Heat is more likely to be seen as heat conditions. I heard a figure I now forget about the number of people being admitted to hospital for heat-related illness this week, it was in the hundreds. There were 65 yesterday. That doesn't count those treated by paramedics at home and those not seeking help.

[Squeak]

Another bad day down under. Even here in Tassie, we're heading for 40C and the fire danger is extreme, with wind gusts up to 90km/h and dry thunderstorms due this evening.

In Victoria, they've evacuated East Gippsland, an area about the size of Belgium, where a fire is so intense that it's generating its own lightning. That seems to be the biggest challenge so far but South Australia has another day of catastrophic conditions too, Anna the huge NSW fires are still out of control, so anything could happen.

Hold onto your hats.

[Martin_B]

Hope all is OK for all you East Coasters. Perth is comparatively cool (30°C) today.

I'd invite you to come over, but it's probably not as useful for researching penguins. We do have quokkas, though.

[Squeak]

An early thunderstorm has knocked 5C off the temperatures but it is still gusty and grotty and I'm watching the fire service website closely, in case the lightning gets something going. I am very, very glad to not be in eastern Victoria today.

[basementer]

I really hope the friendly owner of the Bairnsdale cafe where I ate about 15 years ago, and her now adult children, will all be safe.