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Summergeddon rolls on
Feb. 10th, 2016 12:04 pmWestern Australia has broken a 50 year temperature record and if it goes over 40^C today, we'll break an 83-year-old record. Weather people get very excited about this. I'm just glad I don't have to go to work today (i.e. leave the house, get dressed, that sort of thing). Work is airconditioned, so is the train, but somehow the time spent walking in the heat between these points expands in a way I'm sure is not allowed by the laws of physics.
The record is three days over 40^C; this is day four. I start wondering if I was more correct in my Nightsider stories than I thought, where I went for the worst-case plausible scenario. I remember being really happy when I discovered that the temperature difference required for the Swan River (that flows through Perth) to become a comfortable saltwater crocodile habitat was 2^C :-) What I don't believe is that my scenario of abandoning the city would happen, not really. I think we are too stubborn and decision-makers too incapable of making real decisions, for that. Still, it was scary to read once in a conservation paper - and I'm sorry, I remember no details so it's hearsay - that Perth was the closest candidate to be abandoned, due to its isolation from the rest of the country's infrastructure. If they had to, they would cut us off.
I also remember once reading that Mexico City was on the verge of becoming uninhabitable and that must be 20 years ago and it is still there, pumping out its pollution and adding to its millions.
I am feeling really envious of North America with all that snow right now and wish, as I always do this time of year, that we could organise a temporary exchange.
Did I mention it's hot?
UPDATE: AS OF 11.30 AM BY THE PERTH AIRPORT GAUGE, THAT 1933 RECORD IS MELTING ON THE BITUMEN
The record is three days over 40^C; this is day four. I start wondering if I was more correct in my Nightsider stories than I thought, where I went for the worst-case plausible scenario. I remember being really happy when I discovered that the temperature difference required for the Swan River (that flows through Perth) to become a comfortable saltwater crocodile habitat was 2^C :-) What I don't believe is that my scenario of abandoning the city would happen, not really. I think we are too stubborn and decision-makers too incapable of making real decisions, for that. Still, it was scary to read once in a conservation paper - and I'm sorry, I remember no details so it's hearsay - that Perth was the closest candidate to be abandoned, due to its isolation from the rest of the country's infrastructure. If they had to, they would cut us off.
I also remember once reading that Mexico City was on the verge of becoming uninhabitable and that must be 20 years ago and it is still there, pumping out its pollution and adding to its millions.
I am feeling really envious of North America with all that snow right now and wish, as I always do this time of year, that we could organise a temporary exchange.
Did I mention it's hot?
UPDATE: AS OF 11.30 AM BY THE PERTH AIRPORT GAUGE, THAT 1933 RECORD IS MELTING ON THE BITUMEN