An Endless Summer

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Posted on May 9, 2016

Here in Australia we have had a long, hot summer. There is no other way of describing it.

I found found some statistics from the Bureau of Meteorolgy. There is no information for April but we all know that the warmer than average trend continued.

December

Second-warmest December mean minimum temperatures on record

Warmest December mean temperatures on record for Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia

Two heatwaves break December records in southeast Australia

Severe bushfire in southern Victoria

December was another very warm month for Australia, the sixth-warmest on record for nationally-averaged mean temperatures. The national mean minimum temperature was the second-warmest on record with an anomaly of +1.24°C, while maximum temperature was the warmest on record for parts of southeast Australia including Victoria (+3.80°C).

January

National mean temperature above average

Maximum and minimum temperatures both above average

January mean temperatures were warmer than average for Australia as a whole (an anomaly of +0.52°C), with all States and the Northern Territory recording warmer than average mean temperatures.

Tasmania recorded its second-warmest January on record.

The Australian mean daily maximum temperature was 0.21

°C above average and the Australian mean daily minimum temperatures was 0.83°C above average

February

Australia’s ninth-warmest February on record

Heat wave in northwestern Queensland results in some daily maximum records broken.

February was a warm month for Australia and the ninth-warmest February on record. The national mean temperature was 0.92°C above the historical average, with the monthly mean maximum temperature 1.43°C above average and the monthly mean minimum temperature 0.41°C above average.

Mean temperatures and mean maxima were above average in all States.

Queensland recorded its fifth-warmest February on record for mean temperatures and equal sixth-warmest for both maximum and minimum temperatures. Tasmania was sixth-warmest for minimum temperatures.

A heat wave in north-western Queensland in the last week of February resulted in a number of records for daily maximum temperatures being broken in this region

March

Mean March temperature for Australia warmest on record.

National mean March minimum temperature warmest on record.

National mean maximum temperature seventh-warmest March on record.

A new record for the warmest March day on record for Australia on the 2nd.

This month was the warmest March on record with a mean temperature anomaly 1.70°C

above the average, exceeding the previous record set in 1986 (+1.67°C). The national mean March minimum temperature anomaly was also the warmest on record at +1.97°C.

The hottest March day recorded in Australia was recorded on the 2nd. On this day, more than one-third of Australia recorded maximum temperatures in the warmest percentile.

During the month warmer than average maximum and minimum temperatures affected much of the country. New South Wales and Victoria experienced record high mean March temperature anomalies (+2.49 °C and +2.42 °C respectively).

Nationally, the mean March maximum temperature was the seventh-warmest on record (+1.42 °C).

How did you cope with the heat? Did you enjoy the ‘endless summer’. Are you looking forward to ever increasing temperatures over the coming years?

Think it won’t happen? Check out this graphic.

Climate change is real and it is here right now. It is time to stop and consider what the future is going to look like. What is life going to be like for our children and grandchildren? We are well on our way to leaving them a legacy of an uninhabitable planet.

Check out this page for more information.

What do you think? How do you feel?

I am interested in your opinion whether you are here in Australia or overseas.

War on Weeds

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Posted on January 15, 2015

It is the height of summer here and over the past 4 weeks we have been blessed with warm to hot days (27 – 32C) and intermittent showers and storms. The rainfall has been over 100mm in the last fortnight. Your can almost hear the vegetation growing and everything is green and lush.

Unfortunately, the weeds are loving the weather and thriving as much as the plants that are supposed to be growing.

Since we live on an acreage, we are never going to have a pristine garden but I do prefer not to have it overgrown with weeds so it seems to be a never-ending battle to keep them at bay. The Duke tends to use a combination of whipper-snippering, glyphosate and simply pulling them out. The glyphosate is banned from anywhere near the vegetable garden but unfortunately it has been a necessary evil on other parts of the block.

I recently received some information from my friend, S, over at My Life is A Balancing Act. Although she hasn’t posted this on her blog, I think it is worthy of a mention.

Super Effective Weed Spray – Cost: $2.50 for 4 litres weed spray

4 litres white vinegar
1 cup salt
1 tbsp washing up detergent
Mix well. Spray on weeds to kill them. This is a very effective weed spray so only spray it on the things you want to kill. It is excellent for weeding paths and pavers and along the edges of garden beds.

It sounds easy and even piqued the interest of The Duke.

Before I rush out and buy a bulk quantity of vinegar I decided to test it out. There is no shortage of places to try.

This is a patch of the weeds in what can best be described as the future garden bed in front of the verandah.

We have planted several hibiscus shrubs that are the beginning of the new plantings and there are some old shrubs which will need to be removed but there is a lot of bare earth which the weeds are really enjoying!

I had 1 litre of white vinegar so made up a 1/4 mix of the recipe and filled a small spray bottle.

I sprayed weeds until I had used up all of my mix so now it is just a matter of waiting. According to S, I should see wilted and dying weeds within 24 – 48 hours.

I will be back on Saturday with an update on this project. If it shows signs of being successful, I will be looking for somewhere that I can buy a bulk quantity of vinegar and also buying a backpack sprayer as S suggested because my hand is exhausted from just spraying a small area of weeds.

Cool For Cats

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Posted on January 4, 2014

Today has been an extraordinarily hot day. The forecast for Brisbane was 41C and even here it was tipped to reach 38C. It is now 5pm and it is 38C in my kitchen – no I have not had the oven on!

Because we live in a relatively temperate climate we do not have air-conditioning and our only means of cooling is a fan. It is a very efficient Dyson model which we have had running all day. Other than that, The Duke and I have been doing very little and conserving our energy. We have drunk copious amounts of chilled water and I have planned a cool, refreshing evening meal. I will post more about that tomorrow.

We have kept a close eye on the dog and cat who are both ‘seniors’ in animal terms. There is no doubt that the cat was quite good at finding the coolest spot in the house. At first, he was sprawled out on the slate hearth beside the fireplace. Later on, he decided that on top of the low bookcase in front of the louvres offered the best hope of some movement of air. However, he was panting and seemed a bit distressed so I decided to cool him off.

Although he was not too keen, Mr Kitty did not put up much of a fight as I think he realised that he actually felt better.

I then put him out on the verandah where he groomed himself and dried off quite rapidly.

I am about to have a cold shower before I finish doing the food preparation for our eveing meal. I think we will be eating outdoors in the hope of catching even a whiff of breeze.

My apologies to my North American readers who are suffering from the terrible winter storms. I hope you can stay safe and warm.