2009 Bush Fires

Today was the hottest ever day on record for Melbourne,
46.4*C which works out to about 115.5* F. That's stinkin'hot! It felt as if I'd put my face in an oven as the hot northern wind blasted down through Victoria and the city suburbs. I work a half day on Saturday and usually when I come home the streets are full of cars coming and going from their weekend shopping excursion. Today was different. The streets were nearly empty. As empty as a holiday.

Growing up in Kansas I'm no stranger to hot weather. One summer in 1980 we had 21 days above 40*C (104*F) all of these records that still stand today. What I'm not used to is the extreme dry that comes with living in a drought-stricken state. Trees are dropping their leaves far earlier than their usual seasonal change and they crunch under foot like a crispy potato chips spilled on the sidewalk.

As we decided it was too hot to cook we had a light lunch of hummus and zatar pizza at the local Lebanese grocer, went home & covered all the windows, turned on a fan and bathed ourselves with cool, wet cloths. Little did we know how bad things were only 50 kilometers north of our hot, dry little suburb...

As I post this 84 people have been confirmed killed,
700 homes have burned to the ground and
uncounted animals have been lost.
Crazy country...