December 14, 2016
Residents near Matakana (click here) are being evacuated as a pine forest blaze rages out of control.
More than 70 firefighters, 17 appliances and two helicopters are responding to the fire which is believed to be a burnoff that is out of control in Wright Rd.
A house was evacuated earlier and now residents on Quiet Rise are also being evacuated.
The Fire Service said on Twitter that the blaze was "a major vegetation fire" which is "out of control in Matakana"....
There is also good news out of New Zealand. The good news is the resiliency of their young people.
December 14, 2016
Researchers (click here) who conducted a major study to examine the effects of the Canterbury earthquakes on school leavers have been left scratching their heads after they "unexpectedly" found no negative trends.
The absence of negative effects on teenagers leaving high school when the 2010 and 2011 quake sequence struck has been put down to a word that many politicians now infamously associate with Cantabrians: "resilient".
There has been widespread research on the negative effects of natural disasters on mental health, including the increased rates of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
However, four researchers from the department of psychological medicine at the University of Otago said little research has to date been done into how disasters affect school leavers - at a time of increasing independence, often away from family....
Hottest night in 150 years in . There was a reason why I never read this type of issue before. 150 years. I haven't lived that long. Yet. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
December 14, 2016
By Debra Killalea
Sydney sweltered through its hottest December night (click here) in almost 150 years as the mercury refused to budge to acceptable levels.
Fans and air conditioners copped a workout and hundreds hit the beach last night as the mercury dipped to between 22C -28C across much of Sydney.
At midnight the temperature was still a warm 27C at Observatory Hill while Penrith in Sydney's west reached a slightly cooler 27C.
The last time it was anywhere near this hot was in December 1972 when the mercury hit 26.3C overnight.
At 6am this morning the temperature at Sydney Harbour was already 29C....
Now, admittedly, 29 Celsius is 84.2 Fahrenheit. So, what is the big deal? The very big deal is that these are NIGHT TIME temperatures. It isn't cooling off when the sun goes down. As a matter of fact, as the sun rose the next day it was already warmer than any hour at night.
This is a troubling reality.
December 14, 2016
By Peter Hannam
Possums, bird calls and a midnight surge (click here) in the mercury in some coastal regions served as impromptu alarm clocks as overnight temperature records tumbled.
Sydney posted its highest minimum for December since 1868 at 27.1 degrees, and the second highest for any month....
...Coastal regions, such as Albion Park near Wollongong, reported remarkable temperature movements. That site recorded a 10-degree jump in an hour soon after midnight - including 5 degrees in just three minutes....
The temperature increase on the coast jumped 10 degrees Celcius in an hour.
AN HOUR.
There were three minutes when the temperature jumped 5 degrees Celcius. The media is giving lessons in survival of heat exhaustion.
The temperature image (click here) to the right is from the Australian satellite of the "Weather Zone" at 1434 edt.
The map is Australia and lows and highs temperature.
Australia, Sydney in particular, is receiving air from the Equator off Indonesia. Everywhere in Australia where the temperatures are unkind there is air movement from the Equator.
13 December 2016
1630 utc
Infrared (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)
There is also three very low pressure systems south of Australia realized in the image below. They are 959 and 972 and 977 millibars. Those are very low pressures.
Below is a clear understanding of at least two of those low pressure areas.
There is still yet another image two hours before that show some degree of understanding of the three low pressure systems, but, the systems are not as well defined as in the one at 2300 utc.
There has been widespread research on the negative effects of natural disasters on mental health, including the increased rates of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
However, four researchers from the department of psychological medicine at the University of Otago said little research has to date been done into how disasters affect school leavers - at a time of increasing independence, often away from family....
Hottest night in 150 years in . There was a reason why I never read this type of issue before. 150 years. I haven't lived that long. Yet. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
December 14, 2016
By Debra Killalea
Sydney sweltered through its hottest December night (click here) in almost 150 years as the mercury refused to budge to acceptable levels.
Fans and air conditioners copped a workout and hundreds hit the beach last night as the mercury dipped to between 22C -28C across much of Sydney.
At midnight the temperature was still a warm 27C at Observatory Hill while Penrith in Sydney's west reached a slightly cooler 27C.
The last time it was anywhere near this hot was in December 1972 when the mercury hit 26.3C overnight.
At 6am this morning the temperature at Sydney Harbour was already 29C....
Now, admittedly, 29 Celsius is 84.2 Fahrenheit. So, what is the big deal? The very big deal is that these are NIGHT TIME temperatures. It isn't cooling off when the sun goes down. As a matter of fact, as the sun rose the next day it was already warmer than any hour at night.
This is a troubling reality.
December 14, 2016
By Peter Hannam
Possums, bird calls and a midnight surge (click here) in the mercury in some coastal regions served as impromptu alarm clocks as overnight temperature records tumbled.
Sydney posted its highest minimum for December since 1868 at 27.1 degrees, and the second highest for any month....
...Coastal regions, such as Albion Park near Wollongong, reported remarkable temperature movements. That site recorded a 10-degree jump in an hour soon after midnight - including 5 degrees in just three minutes....
The temperature increase on the coast jumped 10 degrees Celcius in an hour.
AN HOUR.
The temperature image (click here) to the right is from the Australian satellite of the "Weather Zone" at 1434 edt.
The map is Australia and lows and highs temperature.
Australia, Sydney in particular, is receiving air from the Equator off Indonesia. Everywhere in Australia where the temperatures are unkind there is air movement from the Equator.
1630 utc
Infrared (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)
There is also three very low pressure systems south of Australia realized in the image below. They are 959 and 972 and 977 millibars. Those are very low pressures.
Below is a clear understanding of at least two of those low pressure areas. There is still yet another image two hours before that show some degree of understanding of the three low pressure systems, but, the systems are not as well defined as in the one at 2300 utc.
13 December 2016
2300 utc
There is one definitely (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you) off New Zealand and the other is further west.
The last time I saw such low pressure systems was 2003, I believe. It was a hurricane that came from New Zealand's region traveling westward. It's final destination was WAIS. Right on the peninsula where a huge amount of ice melted. The melt reached to depth. NASA has the picture.
2100 utc
Looking at this it is my sincerest hope the low pressure systems will resolve, even if that means loss of Antarctica ice. When that occurs the movement of hot air across Australia will move west off the continent's west coast where it usually has been.
The heat is so specific that it can be avoided if people move out from under it. The sticky point here is of course the fact Sydney is a very large city and needs to function. The idea people can move in mass out from under a heat flow seems silly, but, in the USA we do abandon cities when huge hurricanes are going to land over populations of people causing death and injury.
When realizing the temperatures moved quickly upward makes sense now looking at the air movement from the equator. It is very unexpected and shocking and it can be scary for people. This is NOT NORMAL. This is a heat transfer from the equator to the ice continent. I sincerely look forward to some resolve to this air pattern so the good people of Sydney can return to a more normal life.
