The temperature today is hot hot HOT!

Freuds_Cat · February 14, 2009, 06:34:08 AM

Thats beautiful John

You know the sad part is that during the first week of August that is pretty much what the area of Victoria that got burned out looks like, albeit Gum trees.

Freuds_Cat · February 14, 2009, 06:37:52 AM

Here is a great pic of how the smoke from the fires has drifted across the Tasman to New Zealand.

There is smoke haze high in the air here too which is kinda weird because we are west of the fires by about 800kms and our weather comes from the west to the east.

Barklessdog · February 14, 2009, 02:52:32 PM

It's hard to imagine that something like that can be caused by one or several nut jobs. Just horrible.

Freuds_Cat · February 14, 2009, 03:07:34 PM

There are a lot of Californian firefighters here helping apparently. Not having been there I wasn't aware that California has a lot of Eucalyptus trees also. I knew they had bad fires like we get but not that the trees were the same.

Freuds_Cat · February 19, 2009, 06:27:41 AM

Sorry about the big pic load here. Delete as required Dave or Uwe.

These are some pics from the bushfires. Pretty amazing some of them. You can actually see some of the fireballs that the preheating causes.

Freuds_Cat · February 22, 2009, 02:59:50 AM

For those that thought the fires were ended, unfortunately they are still burning and as the temperature is rising again they are gaining more power.

Concerns are again growing in Victoria, where bushfire conditions are expected to return to extreme tomorrow with hot temperatures and northerly winds forecast.
Warburton Valley and Enoch point residents are being told to get out of the area tonight.

Pilgrim · February 22, 2009, 07:02:34 AM

This thread is pretty incredible - but the whole situation is extreme.

Hang in there!!!!

Freuds_Cat · February 22, 2009, 04:27:38 PM

Thanks Pilgrim. Where I am in the Adelaide hills is historically in the extreme danger areas for South Australia and in the last 150 years this place has been wiped out 3 times. Most of the state was completely amazed that we got away without a major fire during the week of plus 40C temps when the Victorian ones started. Last one was on Ash Wednesday (Australians love irony) 1983.
If anyone is really interested Wiki does a pretty accurate job here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday_fires
28 People died in my area at that time. The toll is over 209 currently in Victoria which kind of puts things in perspective I guess.

After Ash Wednesday here the Govt put a plan in place which included a system where all known and suspected arsonists were put on a watch list. These people are graded into most likely to offend through to low risk. The people at the very top of the list during the high temp week were actually physically monitored. The next were watched for 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the late afternoon and contacted to make sure they were aware that they were being watched. As it goes down the list people are contacted and or watched to lesser degrees. The suspected ones of the lowest risk are simply telephoned by police and told that they are under surveillance. These people get spot checked on a rotation only. There is also a public awareness scheme that is like something out of a WW2 British movie as far as educating the public in what to watch for in peoples actions in the hills.

This system is not in effect in any other state and most of us here are convinced that this combined with the 3 minute standby water bombers in the hills (the planes are at any spotted or reported fire within 3 mins) is the only reason we didnt burn like Victoria.

The other irony is that Half of Queensland is underwater and has been for weeks now with floods.

Freuds_Cat · February 22, 2009, 04:28:51 PM

Even the snakes are over it

TBird1958 · February 26, 2009, 08:53:36 AM

About 7:45am on 2/26/09 here in Seattle. My humble home

It doesn't usually snow much here, in fact the winters are noted for being mild.

Barklessdog · February 26, 2009, 09:05:55 AM

The slugs are going to want to bunk with you.

Freuds_Cat · February 26, 2009, 04:25:05 PM

Great shot Mark, looks beautiful.

Freuds_Cat · February 26, 2009, 05:26:47 PM

Temperatures are on their way up again today. There are still 4 fires burning out of control in unpopulated areas from the last big fires. One has a front of over 600kms apparently

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/27/2502674.htm

sniper · February 27, 2009, 07:10:46 PM

for those interested and happen to live in Australia ... although the residence is not so much a requirement:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=422195998&blogId=469610120

i have a few friends that are working on this, one from New Zealand and one a slide blues player in Aussieland. its basically musician to other muscians with its intent.

the blog has a voice player that explains it when you open the site.

Freuds_Cat · February 27, 2009, 08:30:41 PM

Thanks for that OP. There is usually a music industry push for fund raising when stuff like this happens. A few years back we did a free (donated proceeds) for the bushfires over on the west coast of Sth Aust. Also during the Ash wednesday fires in '83 we were touring Western Australia and did a large benefit gig with about 7 other bands. Some of which included Rose Tattoo, The Divynals and The Baby Animals.

Nothing has been mentioned yet but I'm sure it will. However, I do like the idea of helping musicians directly to get their musical lives back on track.