Climate Disruption.

[Slasher]

Damn.

[Boac]

Australia today apparently the hottest location on the planet (outside volcanoes, for the pedants). Spare a thought for the boss and others. 50. something - sheesh!

[Sisemen]

We can take it! Relatively cool here - a mere 46.

[Alisoncc]

Switch off your air conditioning Sise, and see how well you cope.

[Sisemen]

Didn't switch the aircon on until about midday when I noticed it getting a tad warmer. Our previous place didn't have aircon until the last couple of years we were in it. You kind of get used to 40+

[Slasher]

It gets a bit hot here sometimes during Summer but high humidity is the real problem. While lecky and aircon costs are very cheap, having the dehumidifier on makes quite a big difference indeed without having the damn aircon running 24/7. Negative ions and all that crap.

Same with the Gulf as 46C with 60-70% humidity there is bloody awful. One had to endure aircons all the time for up to 6 months sometimes, including my digs.

Back in Adelaide during my yoof fancy aircons were for filthy rich (i.e. middle class) people. One had to tuffen up Buttercup! But since it was mainly a dry heat we did have a couple portable fans which helped us comfortably sleep during the hotter 38C nights. A water cooler (basically a thin cotton sheet spread across an open widow with a tray of water as its base) helped if there was a breeze.

These coolers were quite popular out in the desert too where one copped Alison's 50C+ on a regular basis, but more upmarket than we ever had.

I spose Toodyay can be hotter than Perth Sise...but being inland the 'Fremantle Doctor' probably doesn't reach you if the Easterlies are strong enough.

[Sisemen]

Generally hotter Slash and you’re right the sea breeze doesn’t get here until 3ish - if at all.

[Alisoncc]

It's not the daytime temps that are the problem. With these hot air masses being funnelled down from the Pilbara to SE Australia, it don't cool down at night. After weeks of limited sleep due to the heat one gets very cranky. Temps in the upper twenties at 2 am are a real bugger.

[Slasher]

Temps in the upper twenties at 2 am are a real bugger.

The upper 20s in very low humidity is a doddle. That means one is looking at 20 or less by sunup. So if it's possible just hit the sack at a later time and get up about 8am LMT. However if humidity is a factor try these steps (I assume one either loathes aircons like I do or they're too spensive to buy and run).

1. Lose fat. Body heat is retained by blubber. So if one has excess weight - lose it.

2. If bathing is done immed before bed do so with water at room temp. NEVER shower in cold water. If anything make it tending a bit warmer. If the cold water tap only delivers hot water due to OAT, douse a cloth and wipe yourself down instead.

3. No coffee or tea (including green tea) a full 8 hours before bed. This goes for even the iced variety. Cool water from the fridge ok anytime.

4. Don't go off to bed until at least four hours after the last meal. Salad dinners with absolutely min carbohydrates preferred. Chilled fruit ok for dessert but no ice cream, cakes or any of that junk as It'll cost you between 2-4am.

5. Sleep starkers pref with no top covers at all. If one just can't sleep without a cover, use a thin porous sheet.

6. Use a portable fan as far as possible from you at the maxest setting puttupable as far as noise, heat energy dissipation and comfort is concerned. A ceiling fan of course is the best.

7. If one wakes up because of the heat at 2 to 3am, take a cloth moistened with cool (not cold) water and slowly wipe one's hot areas. Do not do anything energetic as heartbeat will increase and thus body temp. Also do NOT go to the kitchen and stand in front of an open fridge. That'll only make matters worse.

8. Have one's bedmate (if any) sleep well apart from you.

9. Keep cats dogs hippos whatever off the bed (and out of the room if one sleeps with the door closed).

10. Dont have your bed right up next to the Western wall of your room. If necessary move it as Easterly as possible. Remember the last part of the house that gets heated and at the hottest part of the day is the West side.

10a. If your window faces the West, completely cover it up with Bernie board or plywood with no air space. The aim is to keep the room as cool as possible but blocking solar heat where possible during the latter part of the day. If the cover is removable, put it in place no later than 11am LMT.

The above is just a guide from experience but remember everyone has a different physiology. What's good for the goose might not be good for the goose's wife.

[Stoneboat]

Meanwhile on the other side of the world in the town formerly known as Barrow...
(It's not getting dark at 15:30 here anymore either. 15:45 is an improvement. )

Sun rises in Barrow AK for the first time in 66 days.

[BenThere]

I've never been to Barrow except for flying over it. But I have logged about a year total on TDY's to Keflavik, Iceland, at a similar latitude. I'm still not sure what season I like better, in Winter it's Happy Hour all the time because it's always dark. In summer it's hard to get any sleep because the sun is piercing through the windows at 3 AM.

I live at about 44 degrees North. In winter the days get depressingly short in Dec-Jan, but the summers are magnificent. You can sit around the barbecue at 11 PM and still enjoy the dusk. Great conversations are born in that setting. I'm spending more time these days in Mexico, at around 20 degrees North, and the hours of daylight don't change much seasonally. I think I like that setup better.

[Alisoncc]

Enjoying your "normal" winters day Ben. Or have you fled south to Mexico.

My nearest forecast centre is quoting 39 degC for later today. Typically we get a couple of degrees hotter than forcast where I live. So I expect 41-42 DegC. I live quite close to the sea, where temps in 40's are unheard of. At what point will deniers accept current weather extremes are more than unusual.

In Minnesota, frostbite can hit in minutes
Frigid temperatures are not the only concern. In Minnesota, blustery weather could mean wind chills approaching negative 70. In Ponsford, the wind chill was negative 66, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said.
"These are VERY DANGEROUS conditions and can lead to frostbite on exposed skin in as little as five minutes where wind chill values are below -50," the National Weather Service tweeted. "Best thing you can do is limit your time outside."
Hennen described it as the "coldest air in a generation." Temperatures will plunge to 20-40 degrees below zero between Tuesday and Thursday in the Upper Midwest, Hennen said. In northern Minnesota, wind chills were forecast to drop to 65-70 degrees below zero, which would rival the coldest wind chill ever recorded in the state (71 below) in 1982.

[Wodrick]

Be those proper temperatures or the Colonial's version ?

[G-CPTN]

Be those proper temperatures or the Colonial's version ?

At -40 it's irrelevant.

[Sisemen]

At what point will deniers accept current weather extremes are more than unusual.

Alison, you and I will go to our graves not knowing whether the climate is getting hotter, colder or is just bouncing around the ‘norms’. What we may well see is the sane world calling the “climate religion” out and insisting on verifiable and observable measurements and not rely on dubious computer models and regular scare stories which are produced by whack jobs.

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

I seem to recall someone saying that this is another El Nino year and that meant that we would not have good rains here this season. True so far. Last year was the opposite Al Nina and we did indeed have better rains. Could the current hot weather in Aussie land be a result of this particular effect?

Also, it is not just temperature that has an effect; humidity when high makes hot and cold weather really unbearable. 50C here is much more bearable than 30C somewhere that has high humidity.

[llondel]

9. Keep cats dogs hippos whatever off the bed (and out of the room if one sleeps with the door closed).

Our dogs might come and spend a couple of minutes on the bed but when the room is hot they'll go sleep on the bathroom floor instead because it's way cooler. Perhaps I should join them. The cat sleeps on the pillow above my head regardless of the temperature.

[Alisoncc]

Well in Oz we have millions of fish dying in our rivers. We've had fruit bats falling out of the trees dead. We've had feral horses and camels in the outback dying in their hundreds. All due to the heat. But they aren't people so it's all right.

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When they add up all the homeless, people stuck in their cars, and others that will die in Americas polar vortex, will that make a difference because they are humans dying? But it is America where people are dispensable, so probably not.

As you write Sise, I will be long gone, and have no descendants that would be of concern, so why should I worry. It's the attitude that gets me. As long as Jack is alright, stuff the rest.

Alison
PS. All of these images are from the last few weeks.

[Sisemen]

That sort of stuff is not particularly unusual in a place like Australia, neither are super-cold spells in North America, in the grand scheme of things. It’s just got more noticeable with the advent of social media, the internet, and the 24 hour news cycle. It does, however, play right into the hands of those pushing the scare stories in order to transfer the vast wealth of western nations to the impecunious and ungovernable nations of the third world. And that’s called global communism. Congratulations on being sucked in Alison

[Cacophonix]

Siseman and Slasher, mathematicians, statisticians, physicists and climatologists extraordinaire!

Or perhaps just like the slightly drunken blokes down the pub, boring you about the weather!




Wake up people!


Caco