Vic - Extended heat spell - 3rd Jan 2013 to 12th Jan 2013

[ManilaPlaya87]

I reckon you lot could do worse than all move up here! Yes it was a hot summer's day - 36c max late afternoon - but apart from a few wind gusts this morning it was just a glorious summer day really. And that was it, much cooler tomorrow, and almost all the models I've looked at this evening have a cooler week with a chance of a few showers next week, I think the BOM may be doing a u-turn tomorrow. Sat pic shows masses of cloud flooding down through central Oz right now, that's got to be a good sign.
Edit; Doppler shows the wind change passing Geelong at 8.45pm, temp there down 8c in the past hour.

What? No sand blasting heat from the north next week or spike days? Which models and when did such a turn around occur? The one thing i love about a day like today is how everything seems shut down and the streets are deserted. Went to feel out out my banking details for medicare today and instead of the usual 10 people before me, i was the only one there. These are also the type of days of family togetherness with everyone in the house. I'm not talking about one day like this but on top of an already hot day is when we're in shutdown mode. Sorry i know highly irrelevent but just enjoying being in slow mode

Edit- a very poor cool change. It seems to just be drifting through rather than bursting through. Frankston dropped to 29 now back up to 32. Tommorows forecast perhaps understated at 25? I thought 27 seemed more appropriate considering the abundant sunshine and predominately hot air aloft.

[droughtbreaker]

Crazy temperatures right across the south today, especially the SW corner and East Gippsland where a lot of records appear to have either been broken or nearly broken. It looks like the Alpine Foehn wind effect might have played a bit of a role in the extreme heat down in Gippsland but in the SW it was purely down to the intense heat of the airmass.

Around 38C here today, quite windy for most of the day as well, probably around 30-40km/hr. At the same time there were some calmer patches of the day. EC trying to return us to a normal pattern with some much cooler weather with a couple of hot days in between and a lot closer to what we expect in summer. GFS trending that way as well but still hanging on to the heat more than EC has atm. If EC is correct then perhaps this heatwave won't be quite as bad over VIC in terms of duration as was likely at one stage. I am still very worried about 30C 850T showing up so far south on a semi permanent basis though. Once again it is GFS going for this more than EC but it is still alarming.

The Herald Sun cycling tour passed through here today. It was 29C when the riders came through and would have been about 26C-27C over the mountain. When they got to Bendigo it was around 39C-40C. You have to admire the elite performance of these athletes racing for over 4 and a half hours up mountains and into a 40-50km headwind in high 30s temps.

[droughtbreaker]

Thankfully lot cooler here than in melbourne , we had 33C this arvo and its down to 25C now. I hope the change comes inland this far.
this has been our hottest day for the summer so far. Hope it rains sometime soon.

It is days like this that make living up here through through the 6 month Winter worth it. It may be cold as up here for most of the year but i wouldnt be anywhere else!

The change will make it over here, but it will still be mid to high twenties over the next couple of days and it should be more humid as well. It was certainly hot here today but it is a lot more bearable when you have grass and trees around as opposed to mostly concrete , i.e central Melbourne and many suburbs. 38C is a lot better than 41C that's for sure, and certainly better than 44C like it was in Sale today.

It's remarkable how much it has dried out though. Only around 10 weeks ago it was still muddy and it was green and lush, now the grass is straw and some trees and plants are starting to become quite stressed. It is fairly dry here most summers as we are out of the bay stream on SW wind days when showers develop and on easterly wind days the humidity and instability doesn't make it this far as often as it does out east and troughs often develop east of here as well. Winter and spring it is usually very wet here though to the point that there is water and mud everywhere in many years. I guess there is a bit more of a continental influence here than in places like the Dandenongs and Gippsland and in summer we are probably a touch more Mediterranean in terms of the climate (which is typical of the western half of the state).

[nafets]

Going by the doppler wind radar the change should arrive here within 2 minutes. currently 32.9c, ill see what it drops to soon!

[Madmel]

Morning all, long time I havent been around. Can say one thing it was a little tad warm yesterday and felt more like the summer weather we has before our few years of mild and humid summers. Beauitful day yesterday morning before in Williamstown before the wind picked up slightly. Temp was still on 40.c when I left work at 1800hrs and sitting around 36.c about 2200hrs and was alseep by the time the cool change came through at about midnight but the Split system was on all night to cool the house down anyways.

Whilst I do feel that the Tassie fires arent exactly the best circumstances, just hated the media sham that CFA has inflicted. First real hot day Vic has and then coverage left right and center and belittling that their site has gone down, apps not working..Kinda why ABC Radio is there as for a back up...anyhow vent over.

But seems that we are to see the return of warmer weather next week, should be a interesting week and hope we get some rain soon since it has been a while since we have had any.

[Australis(Shell3155)]

was still windy here at 12.30 woke me up being a hot breeze,
cant live with out an Evap in Melb..

[Tassiedave]

Can somebody please enlighten me how Mildura can have South Westerly winds today and still reach 43 degrees?

[Macedonian]

I suppose because the landmass south west of Mildura has been really hot? that is what they said on the Channel 2 news, sort of makes sense to me.

Ballarat going for 27 today and Bendigo has a forecast high of 39, they are not far apart and the elevation difference is not huge but a huge difference in temps.

I was awake til 1.30am and the change had not yet arrived here. It was 24 C at 1.30am and 14C by 7.30am. Soooooooooo much nicer this morning

19C and calm here now.

Droughtbreaker, it's interesting that you had a windy day yesterday, it was basically calm up here. I went down to New Gisbo at 11am yesterday and it was windy and dusty. We seem to be reasonably well protected from the hot north wind up here, one big advantage of the southerly aspect and slope.

Bad news from Tasmania, i hope there has been a bit of relief down there in Dunalley.

[norwester]

Can somebody please enlighten me how Mildura can have South Westerly winds today and still reach 43 degrees?

No idea but the temp dropped 5c over a couple of hours when the wind changed at 5 am, although frankly there is only the occasional light breeze. A fair bit cooler than the same time yesterday as well by 5c - but the forecast for the next 7 days has us hovering above 40 except for 38 on wed. Wine grape rape harvest due to kick off next week have to feel sorry for the backpacker pickers if it doesn't let up before fresh and dried fruit harvest. Woke up to a blanket of acrid smoke this morning - no clues from CFA or NSWCFS as to origin of the fire so guess its wind drift from further afield - feel gutted for those affected by fire ATM.

[Tassiedave]

28.3 degrees at Launceston Airport currently, Launceston going for a maximum of 32 degrees which is unusual considering the weak change is through.

[Rivergirl]

Terrible fires still going in Tassie. Glad Tassie Dave and members of my family are away from those areas.

[Rhino]

Morning was nice and reasonably cooler here but getting damn hot again now, will be 35C here later. Interesting people mention the temp differences across the state today, we're 45 min from both Ballarat and Bendigo and forecast tops of 27C and 39C respectively and us 35C so a nice cool change if you got it and enjoy, I'm off to the kids wading pool...........again.

Also of note Swan Hill up to 43C already.

Rhino.

[adon]

Up to 43 here so basically the same as yesterday but just a tad cooler. But if not out in the sun directly it's not too bad really. Not exactly a day for roofing or working in sheep yards but the wind is not strong so it's just a hot summer day. See a couple of storms popping around Griffith and north so will be interesting to see where the moisture is heading. Very dry air now around the mallee so any change will make things a little more interesting. Getting a bit low on tank water so a shower would be nice.

[stratospear]

Yarrawonga made it to 45.1c this afternoon. Across the border it got to 47.6c at Hay which is an all-time record since 1957

[Gordon]

I spent yesterday at Anglesea - very hot (41 C) through the mid afternoon, then a cool change early evening and a pleasant night. Arrived home this afternoon to a 28 C house and 22 C outside!

But the big story of yesterday was the failure YET AGAIN of the CFA. Not the volunteers of course, who do a wonderful job. But for senior management in charge of communications, they should be resigning in shame. They've had 4 years since the Royal Commission-acknowledged failures of Black Saturday to get their website right, and it falls at the first real test. By sheer luck, we weren't hit by lethal fires yesterday but it could so easily have been different. I tried all afternoon to access the CFA site to see how things were going back home, but not until the change came through and things settled down could I get on - too late of course had fires started.

I can't believe the lack of responsibilty inherent in the CFA's whining response to this huge failure. 'Don't rely on just one source of information; etc etc.' What rot! As if I'm going to get worthwhile early intelligence from the ABC/ Facebook/ etc. Those sources will be jammed by imminent threats; and rightly so. No reporter at the ABC can talk fast enough to cover the hundreds of incident reports that can give locals valuable insights early. This is the crucial value of a functioning CFA website, but as others have said, it seems to have fallen into the same sorry IT hole as myki, etc. The difference is that this one has the ability to save dozens of not hundreds of lives.

But once again we're faced with awful flashbacks to 1983 and 2009, when we thought we lived in the modern age, but when in fact a man on horseback could have delivered information quicker and more accurately. What a pathetic situation, and I cannot believe the easy ride the media are giving the CFA and their failure so far. Hope the government takes a harder line with them for all our sakes.

[droughtbreaker]

28.8C max here but the 'proper' part of the change came through not long ago. It was quite gusty in exposed locations (I drove out to Kerrie for a walk and it was gusty) and dropped the temp about 4 degrees in quick time. It's 22C here now and it should be a pretty cool night. I also saw some big towers going up to the NE with what looked like pileus caps but it was a fair distance away. GFS still wants to keep us hot on the odd day next week. Monday was always going to be hot but some of the other days might actually turn out a few degrees cooler in the south than what GFS is saying, at least if EC is anything to go by.

It looks like the heat is ready to blast places further north next week and eventually getting up to Brisbane.

GFS in it's extended run is hinting at a major break in the pattern sometime in the week after next with the monsoon making its presence felt and widespread rain and humidity throughout the continent. It would be very nice to see a wet and cooler second half to the month.

[nafets]

Noticed some large cu to the east over the ranges, can anyone else confirm?

[Rivergirl]

45 in Yarrawonga I'm going through there tomorrow on the drive to Sydney and the forecast is hotter tomorrow.

[droughtbreaker]

But the big story of yesterday was the failure YET AGAIN of the CFA. Not the volunteers of course, who do a wonderful job. But for senior management in charge of communications, they should be resigning in shame...........

I couldn't agree more. They treat us like absolute idiots and fools and in the most patronising way. I'm referring to the state government mainly but also everyone in positions of power, i.e. those in management positions that you have mentioned.

The thing that makes me the most angry is how the media hypes things up in the first instance, trying to make it all like a Hollywood action film and almost something to be excited about and entertained by (I'm referring mainly to the commercial networks and the Herald Sun newspaper but everyone seems to be in on the act to some extent these days), then you get the politicians, managers and commissioners in the CFA and DSE etc. standing up and telling us that it's all our responsibility and it's all up to us to prepare and evacuate etc. and if we lose property or even our lives it's somehow 100% our fault and we should feel guilty. Sure, it is important that those of usliving in fire prone areas need to be prepared for the worst and have a plan etc. but why do they all feel the need to shame us and make us feel like lowlifes and then act incompetently in their own jobs when they are the ones with the ultimate power to get the warnings out to a mass audience, fund the CFA volunteers so they can adequately perform their duties etc.

To me it seems as if those in power don't really care and abscond themselves from any responsibility because it's easy to blame the lowly serfs who are actually out there living in the fire prone areas (because they are usually beautiful places that we love and we choose not to live in suburbia). All they care about are their pay packets and power trip.

If we get the adequate warnings and advice out to the mass audience then maybe we can act appropriately on these threats and many people's lives would be saved.

[Macedonian]

We ended up almost equal with melbournes max today, we had a tad over 25C and i see it made it to 26C in Melbourne. That does not happen very often here. A bit weird considering the difference in elevation.