The banner headline in today's Age.Yesterday's over 36 degrees in Melbourne was the hottest October day since 1914. Nine of the ten hottest years since 1900 have happened in the last decade, 2005 being the hottest of all, thought 2006 is well on its way to giving it a run for its money. 250 bush fires (as they're called here) at a time is not uncommon in the summer, apparently, in a drought they burn faster and there's less water around to put them out. Besides, it's still spring!
I feel the drought more keenly than most Melburnians, since I make my weekly trip to Shepparton. Shepp's the center of the Goulborn Valley, one of the main fruit-growing regions in Australia. And my brother in law is an irrigation engineer. The water shortage is acute - farmer's are getting 20% of what they usually get in water - but the worst thing to happen in my month here was a late frost ("Jack," my brother in law calls it) which nipped half the apricot crop in the bud.
Global warming, we're told, will make hot places hotter and weather everywhere more extreme. Australia, as we're being reminded, is the hottest and driest of the continents...
