General Discussion Thread

[Róisín]

10.30am. Humidity in single digits. Temp 35C and rising steadily. Wind has switched from north to west northwest. It is exactly two years since we were evacuated from the Sampson Flat bushfire in the middle of the morning market, and didn't get home for more than a week. I don't want to know. At least I've sold a lot of water plants, fruit trees and flowers. Urgh.

[wavewright62]

Our storm has mostly moved down country; I hope it makes it to the areas where dry weather was starting to bite.  I've spent some time in our garden shoring up the sunflowers, corn and pole beans that had been flattened in the wind.  My husband has reduced that poor tree that broke off in our yard, into firewood and chipper/shredder mulch for the chicken run (it's not supposed to be a toxic plant).  My husband says we put it there only about 6-7 years ago, but he doesn't remember precisely what it was either.  It was planted after our loco stupido former neighbour took down every planting in our front yard with a weedwhacker.  (I have no memory of this event.)  We are making plans to replace it with a couple of native coprosmas.

[Purple Wyrm]

10.30am. Humidity in single digits. Temp 35C and rising steadily. Wind has switched from north to west northwest. It is exactly two years since we were evacuated from the Sampson Flat bushfire in the middle of the morning market, and didn't get home for more than a week. I don't want to know. At least I've sold a lot of water plants, fruit trees and flowers. Urgh.

While here in Perth it's unseasonably cool. We have really screwed up this planet

[Róisín]

We closed the market half an hour early, when the first fire truck went by with siren blaring. Nothing close out of control yet. Now 8% humidity, temp 41.5C, we have a dust storm; pressure 1006, so there may be a change coming.

[thorny]

temp 41.5C

Ack!

I wish I could send you some of our cold spell. But you certainly don't want all of it. (They're expecting 6 below zero F, which it did use to do around here sometimes in January, but hasn't in some time.)

But I can deal with 6 below (Calculator says that's 14 and some decimals below in Celsius) a lot better than I could with . . . that's 106.7F. Gaah.

Stay safe, Róisín, and everybody else whether too cold or too hot!

[phyrestorm999]

Today is Marilyn Manson's birthday.  He's 49. 

Oh, and it's apparently 5 F above the record low for this day and location right now.

[Róisín]

It got up to 42C before coming down to the present 38C. Still urgh, not my favourite weather to be unloading the car. Could've been worse, we might have been in the north of the state, it was even hotter there, Port Augusta got 45C, hotter still in the desert.  At least I sold the two biggest potted fruit trees (nectarines, about my height) so didn't have to bring those home again. And sold out of flowers so I didn't have to move those in the heat. At present both our cars are still off the road, though one may be repaired in the next few weeks, so my friend Liz transported my plants there and back for me. Friends like that are a treasure.

So now we hunker down with the fans on and wait for things to get cooler. And I wouldn't mind a bit of cold, I quite like it.

[midwestmutt]

It's about a half hour before sunrise my time and the temperature is -22 F. The plumbers just got the pipes unfroze at the office yesterday for the second time this week. I hope they didn't freeze again. The village crew has had to replace the 3 water meters in our building twice already because the freezing has damaged them. The forecast for tomorrow is +30's F and snow. Hurry Spring

[Róisín]

Midwestmutt, that sounds not at all amusing. At least here it is now cool enough to sleep, getting on for 1.30 am. Good luck with your weather.

Wavewright, looking at the photo you put up elsewhere, was that tree a Lasiandra, otherwise known as Tibouchina? If so it should be no problem for your chooks.

[thorny]

Róisín, glad that at least you're not on fire! -- and what I meant was that you presumably don't want below-freezing temps, let alone below-zero F, in the middle of your summer growing season.

Midwestmutt, good luck with the pipes -- and especially with avoiding frostbite yourself, please be careful. The cold weather is now over here (though as single digits below freezing, not twenties below), but it's supposed to hit 34 on Monday. Which is going to feel like spring, in comparison.

[midwestmutt]

It was a very slow day at the post office. I guess people are too freezer burnt to come out and play. The landlord was in to bang on the pipes for a few hours but the water, which was down to a trickle, finally gave up again. Since I live only 1/2 a block away I'll pop in tomorrow to check on things and feed the feral cat that lives behind the building. Forecast is now for high 20's with freezing rain and drizzle. Not a great improvement imho. I'd better go get my groceries today. Glad to hear your weather is easing off, Roisin. It seems like Mother Nature only works with exclamation points these days.

[refract3d]

The weather patterns are really something. It's been consistently below freezing for the past week, and often sub 20F (-6C). The last time I remember the temperature getting to the single digits here I was a child. Honestly, I've been enjoying it. I actually have a wind-chill-proof winter coat now and enough warm sweaters that I've been quite cozy. And I live on the 3rd floor so my apartment is warm. The downside is that a lot of pipes and mains nearby have been bursting (thankfully nothing local, fingers crossed), and you know, climate change.
If it weren't for that, I'd take this weather over sticky summer any day.

[Róisín]

thorny, yeah, it would muck up the growing season indeed, though the heat is doing that too. I'm not sure what is going on, maybe high UV, but a lot of plants that usually keep blooming right through summer even when it gets hotter than this have just died, or all the flowers are shrivelled. My red-flowered rose tree has failed this year for the first time ever, and by Thursday my pink gaura had lost all its flowers. This year my bluebell season was only about two weeks instead of the usual six. Weirdly, this year I have a bumper crop of apples, which don't usually like extreme heat. Dunno about the quality yet, but they look healthy.

[wavewright62]

Wavewright, looking at the photo you put up elsewhere, was that tree a Lasiandra, otherwise known as Tibouchina? If so it should be no problem for your chooks.

That's exactly what it was, thank you!  Looking over the description, we must have chosen it for its attraction for butterflies.

[Mélusine]

I'm a bit late compared to some of you, but a very happy new year to all of you I wish you a lot of happiness, that's something we can't be tired of, and somedays small joy(s) change(s) everything. Thank you for being the marvelous persons you are here on the forum