How are the Guzzi Riders in Oz?

[oldbike54]

The fireys must be having a hell of a time today. It's early afternoon in western Sydney and the temp here just hit 46C (115F).

Keep the fingers crossed.

Gonzo

 Gotta be a bitch fighting wildfires in that kind of ambient heat .

 Dusty

[Ncdan]

🙏coming to all the folks in the danger zone.

[Huzo]

Gotta be a bitch fighting wildfires in that kind of ambient heat .

 Dusty

I live here Dusty and I can’t imagine it either.

[Murray]

Gotta be a bitch fighting wildfires in that kind of ambient heat .

 Dusty

I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread however might be worth mentioning it again, imagine Volenteering to fight fires in that heat.

All rual fire services in Australia are made up of purely volenteers.

[Knuckle Dragger]

The fireys must be having a hell of a time today. It's early afternoon in western Sydney and the temp here just hit 46C (115F).

Keep the fingers crossed.

Gonzo

Penrith (Western Sydney) peaked today @ 49.5C (120F)!  Currently the hottest recorded place in the world today!

Some salient facts to put things into perspective:
The SE corner of Australia is the most fire-prone region in the world, on the second dryest (after Antarctica) continent on earth, with vast swathes of fire-dependent forests & ecosystems specifically evolved over millions of years to incorporate & propagate fire as a regeneration vector & medium.

The breakdown of regular Indian Ocean surface temperature oscillation has combined with record unprecedented hot spots of surface oceanic temperature in the Tasman Sea & the failure of the Northern monsoon to create monster supercells of hot & extremely dangerously dry air to sweep across the continent West to East.  Much of Australia is currently in its 3rd year of drought, with most inland arid areas having recorded little to no appreciable rain at all within that time frame.

Fires (area burnt) currently over 50 times as much as the 2019 California Wilfdfires.
This represents an area equivalent in size (to 20th. December 2019) to the country of Belgium.  By now (midnight 4th Jan 2020) this may actually exceed the area of all 3 Benelux countries!

Estimated HALF A BILLION + native animals, birds, reptiles consumed in the fires.  Some ecosystems and species feared extinct in consequence.  Fears yet another billion or more (& additional possible extinctions) will likely disappear due to consequential habitat loss.

There's been anecdotal reports of farmers running out of bullets & shotgun shells humanely slaughtering hundreds of thousands of their dying stock.  The long-term psychological effect on these poor unfortunate folk having to destroy what is effectively many generations of husbandry and care will resonate for the rest of their lives.

UPDATE:  420,000 INDIVIDUAL FIRES (HOTSPOTS) DETECTED across Australia during December 2019.  Source:  NASA satellite data.
Over 8.4 million hectares (20.8 M acres) burned as at 7th Jan 2020.

Graphic visualisation of the extent & severity of fires & consequential air pollution:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/07/visual-guide-see-how-australias-bushfires-are-raging-across-the-country?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlBVVMtMjAwMTA4&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTAU_email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayAUS

A vast swathe of territory of Southern NSW & NE Victoria, from the coast to the Alpine resorts & towns some 300km long has been evacuated in Australia's largest movement of "climate refugees".  This, combined with the losses of lives, livelihoods & property, power grid, communication & even fresh water supply infrastructure failures, road blockages and inaccessability has resulted in some fire-devastated communities being cut off from vital supplies.  Some coastal communities have needed emergency supply & evacuation by the Royal Australian Navy.  Others are yet to be assessed or even contacted.  Dozens are currently missing, feared dead & an official state of emergency has been declared in this SE region, invoking special police, military & civil defence protocols & procedures.

Smoke pollution has caused extreme problems over the last month or so, with millions detrimentally affected in the big Eastern Seaboard cities of Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne & Adelaide, with toxic smoke pollution levels peaking in excess of 20x standard hazardous levels.  Toxic smoke pollution from NSW & Victoria is also currently at hazardous levels in Southern New Zealand, some 1000 Km. east.  Hazardous smoke levels have at times grounded aerial bombardment tankers, emergency supply & evacuation helicopters.  This has & probably will continue to cause numerous additional deaths from respiratory illness & affliction.

There's actually hundreds (possibly thousands) of fires burning on hundreds of fronts & in inaccessible areas that have no control measures either applied or even practically possible.  There's a huge risk some of these innumerable smaller fires combining into catastrophic "mega-fires" with extreme & catastrophic weather events forecast for this & next weekend.

The current situation has all but overwhelmed our somewhat meagre resources to fight or even control the current situation, despite official protestations to the contrary. Yet we are merely at the start of summer.  Traditionally, our historically largest & most devastating fires do not usually occur until the latter half of January into the first fortnight of Feb.

On a personal level:  Tasmania has this time seemingly escaped the worst ravages of the current 3-year drought and although there have been some (deliberately lit!!) & lightning-strike fires burning that have placed some midlands communities at risk, there's only about 35 or so fires currently burning in my own little island haven.  Our own specific danger time is still some 2 weeks or so away.

My brother, however, has lost everything in the Mallacoota fire.  He told me that his house, gardens, sheds, possessions & all his 70 years of life's accoutrements, once standing proud & tall, is now a smouldering pile about a mere meter or so tall!  He's apparently being evacuated (after a terrifying night on the beach & under a jetty & a couple under canvas) to southern Vic courtesy of the Royal Australian Navy.

Another friend (Northern rivers region of NSW) has been all but unable to leave his house due to the risk of smoke-induced Asthma attack since the beginning of November!

I consider myself extremely lucky and safe by comparison despite being all but surrounded by forest reserves.

But my heart literally bleeds for those millions of my brother & sister countrymen that aren't so lucky not to mention the families & loved ones of those either missing or dead.  I admire the selfless heroics of the volunteer rural "Firies" that have given so much ( & have often lost everything, even their lives, as a consequence) to save life & property against all odds.  Bloody heroes & legends, every one of 'em.

I wish I could do more.  I spent some 13 years as a Forester in the 70s & 80s both fighting & (legally) lighting fires in Tassie's State Forests, so I have at least some inkling of the awesome & devastating effects of fire in our Eucalyptus native forests.  But remote-area firefighting is a much younger man's job.

[beetle]

Penrith (Western Sydney) peaked today @ 49.5C!  Currently the hottest recorded place in the world today!

Not so. Temperatures of 54°C have been recorded in Pakistan. 56° was recorded in Death Valley, but cannot be verified.

It may be the hottest temp recorded in Australia.

[Markcarovilli]

Ouch hot....
BTW just used your past advise/post to get my linux netbook connected to Guzzidiag.

How you doing Mark?

[beetle]

All good here. For once, I'm glad I live in the middle of nowhere.

[Knuckle Dragger]

Not so. Temperatures of 54°C have been recorded in Pakistan. 56° was recorded in Death Valley, but cannot be verified.

It may be the hottest temp recorded in Australia.

Sorry.  Didn't explain the factoid properly:  Penrith, west of Sydney, was the hottest place in the world currently on that particular day, yesterday i.e. Saturday 4th Jan 2020.  According to the Bureau of Meteorology..

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/sydney-s-penrith-the-hottest-place-on-earth-amid-devastating-bushfires

There's been many, many places throughout the world, including Australia, that regularly record hotter temperatures.  But not yesterday.

Death valley has the record of the highest ambient air temperature recorded by weather observations (56.7 degrees C).

The Sulphur & Salt mines in the Great Rift Valley of the Dallol in Ethiopia's Danakil Depression (where Africa is tearing itself apart) is considered the hottest place on earth, with average temps very close (and occasionally beyond) the limit of human tolerance.  Tour groups take visitors there at night, leaving before 10 AM for safety, despite which heat-stress related deaths are nevertheless relatively commonplace!  Not to mention the lakes of barely diluted, almost pure Sulfuric Acid (too acidic to actually measure) into which a fall means having one's flesh etched off one's bones!

The hottest (non volcanic) temperature ever recorded has been in the Dasht-e Lut desert in Yazd Province, Iran, with an almost unbelievable (& obviously uninhabitable) summer peak of a deadly 70.7 degrees celsius (160F approx)!  From satellite observations:  there's absolutely no possible way for any actual ground observations to be made in these temperatures!

[Bobic69]

Great summary Knuckle Dragger.

[beetle]

The street where I live.

[balvenie]

That does not look at all pleasant beetle. Hope you're safe

[Murray]

The good nnews is there is a cyclone brewing in the Pilbra int he next day or two. The North West is where the heat has been fed in to create the problem should feed some rain in by the end of the week/early next. So not out of the woods but there may be some relief in sight.

[JJ]

The whole situation is terrible...I've been watching the news daily...my hearts and prayers go out to all of Australia...

[80CX100]

     Wow, I knew it was bad, but I had no idea of the magnitude or the severity.

     I hope that Mother Nature starts helping out, I can't imagine trying to survive in those conditions, let alone fight a fire.

     Thoughts and prayers are with you all in that corner of the world, please take good care of yourselves.
     
     Heart wrenching accounts, tks for sharing 

     Kelly

[reidy]

One of the things I struggle with is a number of these fires have been lit by arsonists.

I find it hard to fathom how a human can enjoy causing so much devastation and destruction on their fellow man and environment. Also to compound the problem every fire fighter that is fighting a fire that was started by an arsonist is not fighting another fire. 

Steve

[Bobic69]

Would be good not to get this topic locked Huzo.

[Huzo]

One of the things I struggle with is a number of these fires have been lit by arsonists.

I feel sorry for them..
It’s a desperate cry for help, there must be something we can do to help them...

[Bobic69]

Cheeky 

[Knuckle Dragger]

I feel sorry for them..
It’s a desperate cry for help, there must be something we can do to help them...

There's definitely psychological & psychiatric issues involved with arson.  The phenomenon of pyromania has been extensively studied, with post-grad theses on the rationalisation and motivation of arson being legion.

In one well-known local (Australian) example from years past the perpetrator was an active volunteer rural fire brigade member!  In some ways these damaged folk do indeed deserve if nothing else at least some sort of sympathy.  Arson, at least in the Australian vernacular and context, is our own, new, unique version of domestic terrorism.

What actually angers me more is the looters.  These cockroaches seem to crawl out of their dens, squats and slime-pits to prey on the most unfortunate & vulnerable victims of disaster.  It's not the victims that break into closed & locked premises without electricity for essential & life-sustaining supplies of water and food to which I refer (this is mere survival foraging in extremis), but the cowardly Chrystal Methamphetamine junkies that feloniously scavenge abandoned & damaged farms, houses & businesses for easily cash-converted assets to feed their abhorrent habits.  Plus the scumbag dealers that deliberately target lower socio-economic demographics in these isolated rural communities with their filth.

Worse yet are the opportunistic looters.  A pox on them all!  I struggle for sufficiently appropriate words of opprobrium for these subhuman excrescences.

[wirespokes]

Worse yet are the opportunistic looters.  A pox on them all!  I struggle for sufficiently appropriate words of opprobrium for these subhuman excrescences.

Good roast! 

Hey! I want to learn how to talk like you!!!

[Knuckle Dragger]

NOW there's news of fc'kn BUSHFIRE CHARITY SCAMS!  Beggars belief.  Both cold-calling telephone contact & (I believe) phony interweb sites.

Congratulations, humanity.  You've achieved yet another record nadir.

Please, please, PLEASE, don't be taken in by these mendacious low-lives!

[Huzo]

Hey! I want to learn how to talk like you!!!

Yep I concur, I wish I had that skill.
Oh BTW..
Did I mention cur...?
I always seem to run out of words that do not start with the 3rd and 6 letter of the English alphabet when on this topic.
I should have gone to school to learn myself how to talk proper...!
Speaking of PRoper..
For the benefit of those who may be wondering, he assures me he is ok and there are several standing offers of immediate assistance no doubt.
His place is awfully close to the trouble..

[reidy]

Huzo and Mr Dragger, I would like to thank you both for your carefully worded comments. I was tempted to use words like scum sucking vermin of society or bottom feeding members at the shallow end of the gene pool.

I am not sure which group I despise more. It could be the arsonists that have serious problems and have caused so much pain. It may be the journalists who ignore that a lot of these fires were deliberately lit and claim it is all climate change. It could be the exploiting pigs who sit at home and dream up ways of extracting money from a generous public for their own personal greed. But if I had to pick one I would have to choose the lowest dog act that there is. That is to take advantage of someone at the lowest point in their life by looting. These thieving maggots are not only stealing possessions, they are attacking the mental health and hopes of recovery for their victims.

But to put this all into context, on the other end of the scale from this utter filth of society there is hope for our country. This is demonstrated by the heroic efforts of our thousands of volunteer fire fights who have not only given up much sweat and pain in their own time. Some of these have given their life to try and save others. Also let us not forget those behind the scene who may not be able to be on the front line. That is those volunteers that have worked incredible hours to keep the fire fighters feed and watered in deplorable conditions of smoke heat and uncertainty about if they will have a house to go home to.

If this second group reflects what Australia should be about I am glad that this is my home.

Steve

[Bobic69]

Trying to stay focused on the positive, the locals who fed and housed the stranded tourists, the general public with their donations but what impressed me most of all was witnessing at group of farmers  who rallied together and got the job done. As fires were popping up everywhere and no fire trucks were arriving, they carted out whatever water they could and put the fires out. I see them as the true heroes looking after their community. Awesome.

[oldbike54]

 The acts of kindness shown to the wildlife in OZ have moved me .

 Dusty

[balvenie]

Speaking of the wild life Dusty, is it not extraordinary how some of them overcome their fear of Man, to take a drink out of someone's outstretched hand?

[Murray]

Trying to stay focused on the positive, the locals who fed and housed the stranded tourists, the general public with their donations but what impressed me most of all was witnessing at group of farmers  who rallied together and got the job done. As fires were popping up everywhere and no fire trucks were arriving, they carted out whatever water they could and put the fires out. I see them as the true heroes looking after their community. Awesome.

This is/was 98% of the story between commercial media and social media howling at the sky about how awful the world is you realize why shock jocks continue to have a job.

All terribly undramatic here they hope to open the Eyre highway soon there is a few trucks full of hay waiting to get across the Nullabour.

[Huzo]

I feel sorry for them..
It’s a desperate cry for help, there must be something we can do to help them...

You know..
Help stop the pain for them, or put them out of their misery..(as it were..)

[oldbike54]

Speaking of the wild life Dusty, is it not extraordinary how some of them overcome their fear of Man, to take a drink out of someone's outstretched hand?

 It is amazing for sure , the short film of the Roo and the fireman was touching . We are getting images of all types of these events here , the poor Koala that was burned being treated by a vet kinda got to me . This is all so sad .

 Dusty