The Weather Thread.

[marron]

Wendy the first one was a fire about 2k away.

The second... is rain!

 

Had a little poke around today, first day I've been game. The roads are closed of course, close to the fire zone. But it was pretty devestating, what i saw. That fire was hoooooooooooooooot. The ground was black, every tree burnt to a crisp.

I see there are lots of funds being raised  for the rfs which is awesome but I fear for the ecology I really do. The impact of the loss of all this bushland is going to be felt long into the future in so many ways.  And this government will do **** all about it. 

[Wanderboy]

This picture made me shed some tears tonight.

From near Batlow, from yesterday.  

Panic, stampede, death by fire. 

 

 

[wendybr]

😢😢😢😢

It's all horrifying...and I find myself crying often atm.

Today, I went to my school...to feed birds that I know are finding it hard to get a feed.

I mainly wanted to feed the magpies I keep seeing scratching around, and seemingly finding nothing but dust.

I had beef strips again...like I did a few days ago....which I fed to 2 crows, because I saw no magpies.  😟

I've also started buying wild bird food...for the cockatoos back at the other venue I mentioned last week....and I distributed this around the carpark at my school.

One ate from my hand (possibly some  cockies know me from hanging out near my staffroom during school terms).

In the end,  almost 30 came and had a feed. I was really happy to see them waddling around and eating with gusto.

 

But...... I kept having flashes of all the birds in forests.....gone. 😢

Overall, it felt really good...to find some way to help. These birds must miss the kids' scraps, which they spend all day fossicking around for...and pulling out of garbage bins.

But they're the lucky ones.

[Smoggy]

 

 

 

[Smoggy]

Not going to put this in what grinds gears thread as compared to what country folk are going through its non comparable.

It is pretty filthy around Sydney though isnt it. The light rain we had a few days back brought dirt with it, all surfaces here covered. I cleaned the balcony after coming back from holls and just filthy again.

This combined with this humid grey overcast weather is making it feel like Manchester when all the mills were belching out shyte...its propper grim.

I think the best summer weather ( if you like sunny) in Sydney often occurs before new year and that Jan and Feb can be humid cloudy affairs. Add the bushfires in to the mix and not good.

Roll on ANZAC day when usually the fire season ends and we get another shift in the weather.

Edited January 11 by Smoggy

[marron]

Yeah we had a layer of red dust, can't think where it has come from.

The fog yesterday and at times today is insane, thicker than I have ever seen it, without doubt in the last few years I've been up here at least, I have dim memories of really thick stuff from my childhood but don't know whether to trust the memory. Visibility has been almost nothing at times. Crazy. It must be the smoke in it - but that was mostly absent today, no smell of it at all unlike yesterday - but it makes me think of those Victorian Pea Soupers that you read about with the industrial smoke contributing, it's not hard to imagine in this.

[Smoggy]

27 minutes ago, marron said:

Yeah we had a layer of red dust, can't think where it has come from.

The fog yesterday and at times today is insane, thicker than I have ever seen it, without doubt in the last few years I've been up here at least, I have dim memories of really thick stuff from my childhood but don't know whether to trust the memory. Visibility has been almost nothing at times. Crazy. It must be the smoke in it - but that was mostly absent today, no smell of it at all unlike yesterday - but it makes me think of those Victorian Pea Soupers that you read about with the industrial smoke contributing, it's not hard to imagine in this.

Yeah...down here it was a pea souper although not as foggy as up there i would think. Deffinately a mix of smoke in the mist and fog. A real Middlesbrough type day...we had whole winters like this.

Plenty of rain in the forecast now anyway. 

Edited January 12 by Smoggy

[sonar]

Holy snappin' climate change Batman.......it's raining......at last

To all the folks near the fires I hope this helps.....at least in the short term anyway. 

PS: How good is it to breathe actual air instead of smoke....lol

[SomeGuy1977]

1 hour ago, sonar said:

Holy snappin' climate change Batman.......it's raining......at last

To all the folks near the fires I hope this helps.....at least in the short term anyway. 

PS: How good is it to breathe actual air instead of smoke....lol

And a few drops into the dam as well. And more planned for the next few days.

Cant remember the last time I've been woken up by a storm at 4:30 in the morning and been happy about it, but gee its a great sound.

 

[Prydzopolis]

1 hour ago, SomeGuy1977 said:

And a few drops into the dam as well.

Apparently the land is too dry to get much decent stuff in the damn

[marron]

 

Not sure where to put this, here will do.

Rode down to town on an errand today and then bumped in to someone who told me the lookouts were open... so rode out to Govetts. Will aim to do Evans tomorrow and ride across to it via the fire trail through a patch that was pretty burnt.  I really want to get out to Perry's - past the rock on the left -  to see what state bluegum is in from above but the fire uncovered an asbestos dump up that way plus that area was the worst hit so I suspect it's still closed. Anyway took a couple of snaps. There's a fair bit of green in my end of the Grose - it's patchy, so that's good news for just about my favourite place in the world - so I am buoyed a bit personally by it. We've been lucky up here.

 

All walks are still closed and judging by what I saw will be for some time, I reckon it will take a while to look at damage to railings etc.

 

 

[wendybr]

^^^ You'd hope that, with those patches of green, animals may have been able to retreat to safety there. Well, some at least!

And that those green patches will provide food...for some too!

You'd hope.

[marron]

Yeah. It's interesting, because the hot burns were on the spurs and escarpments; the valleys were a little wetter I guess. When the fire got out of the valley it really burnt hard.

Now I want to know how reflective that is of like 500,000 hectares. Especially as that is the edge of it, and had heavy work by the firies due to proximity etc. 

 

[StillWandering]

That's great to hear Marron. I was so worried we were gonna lose it all forever. Such a beautiful part of the world, words would fail to do it justice. Managed to catch the snow falls at Govetts leap last winter, never seen anything like it. 

[marron]

Yeah it's a pretty amazing contrast we get up here in general but it's been a pretty extreme year. Fair bit of snow (although, not anywhere near as much as used to happen), hottest day on record, fires, now a good week or more of the thickest fog in memory and then drizzle with a couple of storms thrown in. It was a year ago we had really full on hail as well.

Was hoping to get out this way today but it's a bit wet, and foggy as well so wouldn't be able to see much into the grose from the evans end... just waiting my chance for it to lighten up. I guess this is what fire trails are for though (not my picture)

 

[marron]

Well I went out anyway and got a bit wet. Of course it was misty as at Evans and heaps of valley cloud so you could barely see - but, joy of joys, it parted just briefly to reveal our favoured camping spot on the floor that looked in pretty good shape. I could see further up towards blue gum at times but not really. Everything east of Junction Rock looked pretty burnt though. 

Then went across the fire trail back towards town.  That was a stark journey.  One side green, birds aplenty, the other black as hell and silent. Really, the very edge.  Went for a wonder into the fire zone but was very eerie. Still.... some canopy left at least.

On my way bumped into some others out and about and had the standard chats sharing info. They were laying food in places for wildlife and had seen a wallaby. They also told me they'd heard blue gum wasn't too bad.

Glad I went. Now for anvil rock.....

 

[Prydzopolis]

What caused all those thunderstorms?

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-22/what-made-the-hail-and-storms-so-bad/11886016

[marron]

Sorry for spamming the thread, I know it's not weather exactly...

Clear day today, went down Evans again for a look. Really really good look up the Grose from there, boy oh boy. Good views of the escarpment running along the northern edge towards Anvil as well. Both of those areas just had black matchstick trees and black ground in a lot of places. But like I said before, kind of like stripes down hillsides, kind of thing - there was also still some patches of green. Hoping the old dear I chatted to the other day was right when she said she'd heard Blue Gum was in okay nick. Impossible to see from that angle, it's over the shoulder of a hill - really have to get out to Anvil but it's still sort of closed off - "enter at own risk" - asbestos dumps have been discovered but also not clear from falling trees and so on.

Forgot to mention, also saw a chopper doing a tour of the Grose, down real low.

[marron]

My phone is far from the best. If you see those darker greyish areas, you can see the forest floor there. No canopy.

Edited January 22 by marron

[Wanderboy]

Fair dinkum, can this summer really get any worse?

3 firefighters lost their lives this afternoon when their C - 130 fire fighting aircraft crashed in the Snowy Mountains. They were volunteers from the USA.

It distresses me immensely that so many lives have been affected this summer. Nearly 30 lives lost, and getting close to near 3000 homes lost across all states. 

Not to mention the devastation to wildlife - over a billion lives lost just there. The wildlife that survived will probably die anyway due to a lack of food and water.

I'm feeling so sad tonight. Lost for words.

 

Edited January 23 by Wanderboy

[marron]

Yeah it's indescribable. Just keeps coming doesn't it.

Did you guys get the dust yet? Moved through here over the last hour or two.

[Wanderboy]

4 minutes ago, marron said:

Yeah it's indescribable. Just keeps coming doesn't it.

Did you guys get the dust yet? Moved through here over the last hour or two.

Yep, got the dust. Skies are quite orange looking. And the smell of smoke abounds.

[wendybr]

5 hours ago, Wanderboy said:

Fair dinkum, can this summer really get any worse?

3 firefighters lost their lives this afternoon when their C - 130 fire fighting aircraft crashed in the Snowy Mountains. They were volunteers from the USA.

It distresses me immensely that so many lives have been affected this summer. Nearly 30 lives lost, and getting close to near 3000 homes lost across all states. 

Not to mention the devastation to wildlife - over a billion lives lost just there. The wildlife that survived will probably die anyway due to a lack of food and water.

I'm feeling so sad tonight. Lost for words.

 

You aren't alone, WB.

The only comfort of sorts is that there is a sense of unity in so many others sharing your sense of desolation and helplessness. 

And maybe there's a  sense that we have reached a turning point.

If not, I hate to think what it will take to reach one.

The plane crash and the loss of lives from overseas is just horrendous.

Take care my friend.

 

[Neverbloom]

11 hours ago, Wanderboy said:

Fair dinkum, can this summer really get any worse?

3 firefighters lost their lives this afternoon when their C - 130 fire fighting aircraft crashed in the Snowy Mountains. They were volunteers from the USA.

It distresses me immensely that so many lives have been affected this summer. Nearly 30 lives lost, and getting close to near 3000 homes lost across all states. 

Not to mention the devastation to wildlife - over a billion lives lost just there. The wildlife that survived will probably die anyway due to a lack of food and water.

I'm feeling so sad tonight. Lost for words.

 

came to this topic to complain about how long it took for it to cool down yesterday but a passionate post like this really puts things in perspective, its depressing how many things are going wrong, its especially upsetting that they were from the USA because if you are fighting for your country its courageous and kind but fighting for someone else's country is just that much more amazing and everyone who is putting their lives on the line to protect us and our wildlife have my utmost respect, its not all negative there has been a tonne of people helping out and donating so its shown the best of humanity but there is still a lot of bad

[Wanderboy]

This is truly frightening. The perfect firestorm.
Best to read the description of what happened before watching the video.

These fires have been ruthless and at the mercy of the gods.
No human intervention can stop this sort of ****.

 

 

 

[wendybr]

Terrifying! 

You'd wonder how that was filmed!

[Edinburgh]

10 hours ago, wendybr said:

Terrifying! 

You'd wonder how that was filmed!

And the camera survived.

Look at the bottom of the picture. Date, time, some other numbers, and speed 0 kmh. Camera on a stationary RFS vehicle?

[Prydzopolis]

Why is there a difference between BOM & temperature reading in your car?

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-30/how-does-car-measure-temperature-in-a-heatwave/11815472

3 hours ago, Edinburgh said:

And the camera survived.

Look at the bottom of the picture. Date, time, some other numbers, and speed 0 kmh. Camera on a stationary RFS vehicle?

I don’t think it’s a camera on an RFS vehicle, they all left the scene. It’s a garmin product (massive fan of there wearables), I had a quick look online for what sort of product it could be? Unsure which one could withstand those temperatures & measure wind speed?

[Edinburgh]

1 hour ago, Prydzopolis said:

Why is there a difference between BOM & temperature reading in your car?

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-30/how-does-car-measure-temperature-in-a-heatwave/11815472

I don’t think it’s a camera on an RFS vehicle, they all left the scene. It’s a garmin product (massive fan of there wearables), I had a quick look online for what sort of product it could be? Unsure which one could withstand those temperatures & measure wind speed?

The story that goes with the video, from Dunmore RFS, confirms it is a dash cam on an RFS vehicle.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2504292139827327&id=2052524438337435

[sonar]

Anyone for Hang Gliding.....

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6431693/First-time-hang-glider-clings-dear-life-pilot-FORGOT-attach-craft.html