It's record-breaking HOT

No matter how I try to wrap my mind around the fact that it's late January, not late July, I am usually surprised by the actual date when I see it on newscasts, in the newspaper and on incoming e-mails. There is a mental startle, and then a quick remembering that I am not in a summertime California or sultry Northwest summer. I am in Australia, and although Christmas was only a little more than a month ago, it feels like ages have passed.

Victoria has been experiencing the worst heatwave in a century. A newcomer, it's hard for me to know what's normal and what's not. My first summer here in January 2007 was "the hottest, most humid summer" in these parts in two decades as locals said, but it was broken up with periodic, spectacular thunderstorms. On those hot days I laid down on cool tile floors in my skivvies in our rental home after my chores were done.

Last year wasn't so bad. There were some hot days, but by and large, nothing that stands out in my mind except for the hot day we celebrated Australia Day on Jan. 26, but then that ended in a fabulous, cooling thunderstorm. We were in our own home by that time, not the rental with tile floors. This home has air conditioning. Thank God.

Up until last week, we've had a handful of hot days...usually two at a time, then back to pleasant 70 or 80-plus degree afternoons which, on average, cooled off to a pleasant range from 45 to 68 degrees overnight. In fact, a few over night temperatures were in the low 40s, and daytime highs struggled to reach 60 degrees. Only two weeks ago I had a fire in the woodstove for a cold day and wore my new Washington State University sweatshirt, a Christmas present from my step-mom Sharon and dad. I'm told that's a normal summer in the area that we live in.

All that was thrown out the window this week. We are into our fourth day of HOT, where the temp soars to 90 degrees by 9:30 a.m., (right now it's 11:30 a.m., 101.3 degrees and rising) and tops out at about 110 by 8 p.m. The sun sets at about 8:30, and only then does the temperature start to drop. At 9 p.m., the temp was a sweltering 104 night before last. Last night the low was 98 degrees at 10 p.m., and 77 degrees by this morning. Needless to say our little air conditioner that cools the middle section of the house is going full-blast by 9 a.m. The other rooms that don't get the benefit of the cool air are stifling, and the doors are closed. There is a standing floor fan in the room that I write in, and at this moment it's on high, cooling my wet head after a cold shower. We have a portable air conditioner that fits into a window, and last night Steve moved it into our room. He came home from a Country Fire Authority (CFA) meeting at about 10 p.m., found me sweltering in bed, trying to sleep. He touched my skin and exclaimed, "You're hot!" I could have taken that as a compliment, but I was too miserable. It was still more than 90 degrees outside. So the kind man brought in the air con and left the ceiling fan on high.

When I lived in central California for about 16 years, I was used to non-stop heat for at least four months of the year, where days were over 100 degrees, nights were balmy and sleep was interrupted by mockingbirds all night long. But being raised until 11 years old in mostly soft Northwest summers, and then moving back there at age 28 until just over two years ago, I guess the "used to it" part of me got lost in the mix. I'm not used to it anymore.

Weather forecasters are saying this is the longest period of heat in a century, and temperature records are breaking all over southern Australia. Adelaide had it's hottest day in 70 years, hotter even than "the Alice" (Alice Springs) in central Australia desert outback, which was about 15 degrees cooler. Perth, on the western coast and notoriously hot, was cooler by about the same.

The only things that aren't dropping in the heat are bush flies and spiders. Walking into the work shed the other night to retrieve frozen steaks out of the freezer, I was greeted by loud buzzing from literally hundreds of flies escaping the heat. Later that night as I ate dinner, I was greeted by a "baby" Hunstman spider (as big as a teacup saucer rather than the dinner plate size of an adult; and yes, I am taking poetic license here, but they ARE big) who tried to share my meal. I nearly knocked my plate onto the floor in my effort to escape. A few hours later after a cold shower I found a white-tail spider (a bite-you) on the wall and did away with him by sucking him up into the dustbuster.

Melbourne (90 minutes away from us) is in the midst of the hottest, driest streak in 103 years. The famous Australian Open tennis tournament at Rod Laver Arena this past week had its share of problems as well. Court temps reached almost 140 degrees, and (to some people's angst) authorities closed the open roof to give relief to the spectators and players.

I went for a drive yesterday afternoon...what a mistake. I think I got heat stroke just from driving. I had the windows open in our Land Rover Discovery to smell the baking gum trees emitting their fragrant oil, and for the wind to toss my hair about, 'cause I like that. But as I drove along a flat plain, the strong, hot, north wind felt like a non-stop, out-of-control blast from a furnace as there were no trees to block its path. That hot wind literally took my breath away, and I gasped for air. It was 105 at that time, and I can only imagine what the wind pushed it up to... (sort of a reverse wind chill?) I shut the windows and turned on the air con and headed for home and a cold shower after about 20 minutes of that.

So much for an adventure to gather writing material.

Needless to say the infamous Australian wildfire season is well underway, and Steve has been busy. Most of the wildfires have been in the eastern part of the State in the Snowy Mountain ranges and other, smaller hills and state parks. As I write, there is an uncontrolled wildfire raging about two hours northeast from here, and has been going for three days. At last count, there are 74 tankers, and 11 strike teams on site. (Strike teams are specialty groups of about five to seven firefighters.) There are also multiple firefighters not on strike teams onsite. Steve is ready to go as a strike team leader should they call his brigade. He's been doing this for more than 30 years. Meanwhile, there have been several spot fires he's been called to, and his pager goes off fairly frequently. Unfortunately, there are some people who take advantage of this hot weather and prank call for false alarms. The nature of any fire station is to respond to anything...and that means sometimes Steve makes a 20-minute trip into Ballarat at 3 a.m. only to discover it's a false alarm.

There has been no rain in more than a month; although there was a cool morning with wet fog last week, it wasn't enough to wet grass, scrub and trees to protect it from fire. And when eucalyptus trees catch fire, it's really bad, as they practically explode from oil in the wood, and the stringy bark floats away to catch other parts of the forests on fire.

What a mess.

And so...the forecast continues HOT through next week, and I am considering myself a fire widow for the time being. As there is a Total Fire Ban across the state (which means no coal or wood-fired barbecues, no using power tools or anything else that could spark) Steve and his work-partner (son Luke) can only work so many hours, only inside city limits, especially in this heat. He took the day off work yesterday and spent it relaxing with a John Michener book "Space" in a bean-bag chair inside the air conditioned fire station ready to go if they had a call. He came home for dinner and took me to the local restaurant/pub so I wouldn't have to cook in this heat, and then after taking me home was off to a regional CFA meeting with Cookie (Bill Cook) the captain of the local fire brigade. Steve appears to be the favorite next in line for captaincy when Bill retires early this year.

Anyway, here I am. To those of you considering a visit to wonderful Australia, don't come in January or February, or even March sometimes, unless you like HEAT. I feel sorry for the children who start a new year back to school this week. Their summer vacation was half of December and all of January. Steve says he remembers that hot summer only really began when he started school at the end of January in rooms that mostly didn't have air conditioning.

Wish I was enjoying a mid-winter afternoon with my family and friends! But I can't even think of a steaming decaf, non-fat, sugar-free, hazelnut latte at this moment. It makes me too hot.

But then again, this gives me fodder to write, and to share a new experience with you all.

Steve just called to inform me that power will be shut down for Ballarat and the surrounding areas (which includes us in Scarsdale) before 6 p.m. today to conserve energy. He's going to the gas station to get enough petrol for our generator to keep water and power going so we can keep cool. I can't even imagine what people without this kind of resource will do. As I write, it's now 109.8 degrees. (I take a long time to write and ponder, I know. I do other things in between.)

I'm heading off to soak my head in cool water again, while I can.