And F U Mother Nature Summer 2012/13

[Seshat]

Emergency warning issued for fast-moving grass fire in Shepparton area.

That from my husband just now. Then I looked at the country fire authority website. There's a whole bunch of fires in my state alone.

And a watch-and-alert for the Melbourne metro area.


<sigh>

[Blue Ginger]

Fingers crossed we don't have a repeat of 2009.

I just hope we get some rain soon. I can give up a few sunny days for rainy ones.

[LesserSouthernFroglet]

Things have been bad down here in the Deep Deep South - I've been watching one fire from my kitchen window. Fortunately there's a river between it and me though. But there have been a couple of smaller ones closer.

We really need some serious rain.

Keep safe, everyone.

[TopEndDave]

We have had two days of Monsoon rains and now nothing. The cyclone took all the rain to Queensland and the Monsoon hasn't come back Some storms and lots of hot and humid weather

[fireheart]

I swear South Australia currently has a buffer from serious weather conditions.

The worst we've had has been some minor bushfires that have come a little too close for comfort.

[Seshat]

Yesterday I went to my doctor's.

The backburning (at least, I hope it's the backburning) scar from the Epping bushfire was right against the road, and within metres of a petrol station. (gas station, for you Amerikuns.)
That road had been closed (duh) to normal traffic while the fire was going - just emergency vehicles. And the hospital on that road (Epping hospital) had evacuated its slower-to-evacuate patients.
(The hospital is a few kms up the road from the fire, but I can well imagine the fire dpt and the hospital's senior staff keeping in close contact.)


The scar from the main fire was clearly visible. If it hadn't been raining all day; I'm sure the fire would have still been going - and the doctor's office closed.

[fireheart]

South Australia ended up getting the smoke from the bush fires.

I woke up yesterday and went out to catch the bus, only to discover that it was smelling like some. I panicked because I have incense in my room and the smoke smelled just like that!

[Seshat]

Note to non-Aussies:

The distance between me and fireheart is about half the distance from Land's End to John o'Groats.
(For those who don't know what that means: that's the longest travel distance in the 'mainland' UK.)

I looked it up: approx 450miles/730km. (LE to JoG is 1400-odd km)

So it's a long way for the smoke to travel. I suspect Fireheart didn't get the Epping smoke - there's enough other Victorian smoke to reach to her, though.

[Chromatix]

GB sits pretty neatly between latitudes 50 and 60 - like Finland does between 60 and 70. One degree latitude is 60 nautical miles, and each nautical mile (longer than standard miles) is roughly 2km. LE to JoG is more than the 1200km this implies because it's not a straight north-south line.

There is still a continuous network of railway lines from pretty close to one (Penzance) to pretty close to the other (Thurso), and it takes 24 and a half hours on the most direct services - including an 11-hour sleeper train between London and Inverness. Average speed point-to-point is nearly 60mph, which is slow for British trains but it's a very indirect route just to connect with the sleeper. At one point, all of the lines in northern Scotland were planned for closure, but the ones to Thurso, Wick and Kyle of Lochalsh (which radiate from Inverness) survived.

[fireheart]

I suspect Fireheart didn't get the Epping smoke - there's enough other Victorian smoke to reach to her, though.

It may have been one of those. I live in Adelaide although where I am is fairly close to the coast. We only have a few hours.

[Seshat]

It was probably one closer to the border. Epping is a suburb of Melbourne. (And yes, everyone now knows I live in the Melbourne suburbs.)

[Jester]

Note to non-Aussies:

The distance between me and fireheart is about half the distance from Land's End to John o'Groats.
(For those who don't know what that means: that's the longest travel distance in the 'mainland' UK.)

I looked it up: approx 450miles/730km. (LE to JoG is 1400-odd km)

For my fellow Americans, that's a a bit shorter than going from the top of Florida to the bottom (Jacksonville to Key West). And by bottom I DO mean Key West, not Miami, as Key West is a good 150 miles beyond Miami.

Or a bit longer than Boston to DC.

Or pretty much exactly the distance from San Francisco to San Diego.

[fireheart]

It was probably one closer to the border. Epping is a suburb of Melbourne. (And yes, everyone now knows I live in the Melbourne suburbs.)

More than likely.

My boyfriend thinks I am nuts because he could tell that the smell was wood smoke while I thought it smelt sweeter like sage or herby....

[wolfie]

Average speed point-to-point is nearly 60mph, which is slow for British trains but it's a very indirect route just to connect with the sleeper.

Why would it be a big deal getting to the sleeper? I thought British railways had sleepers every couple feet along ALL their tracks.

For my fellow Americans, that's a a bit shorter than going from the top of Florida to the bottom (Jacksonville to Key West). And by bottom I DO mean Key West, not Miami, as Key West is a good 150 miles beyond Miami.

Or a bit longer than Boston to DC.

Or pretty much exactly the distance from San Francisco to San Diego.

If you're looking for long distances in the same state, all that's dwarfed by I10 across Texas. According to my atlas, it's around 840 miles from El Paso to the Louisiana line - or around half the distance from where TC17 crosses from Manitoba to where 417 reaches Ottawa.

Are there any restaurants in Alaska that describe items on their children's menu as having "Texas-sized portions"?

[dawnfire]

I saw the Epping fire just near the northern highway (just before they closed it) and the edge of it at donnybrook road . I live just north of the city edge.