Willoughby Owen
EF2
Hi all,
There's currently a sad state of emergency in Victoria after raging bushfires on Saturday have taken 134+ lives and destroyed 750+ homes.
I happened to be in Melbourne for the cricket on Friday and the heat on Saturday was ridiculous along with the northwesterlies blowing a gale, cut right through you and hurt your eyes. The temperatures were the hottest recorded in the state ever, with Melbourne City smashing it's record by 2.2°C to 46.4°C (115.5°F), 20 minutes later Avalon got to 47.9°C (118°F).
The real distressing thing about these fires is that some were deliberately lit and PM Kevin Rudd is calling the arsonists mass murderers which is spot on.
MODIS-Aqua shot of the smoke plume on Sunday 1.50pm local time
Google map of fires: http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...177826,144.294434&spn=15.316497,13.095703&z=6
Media coverage here: http://www.theage.com.au/ and http://www.news.com.au/
Really such a shame the evacuations weren't handled better.
There's currently a sad state of emergency in Victoria after raging bushfires on Saturday have taken 134+ lives and destroyed 750+ homes.
I happened to be in Melbourne for the cricket on Friday and the heat on Saturday was ridiculous along with the northwesterlies blowing a gale, cut right through you and hurt your eyes. The temperatures were the hottest recorded in the state ever, with Melbourne City smashing it's record by 2.2°C to 46.4°C (115.5°F), 20 minutes later Avalon got to 47.9°C (118°F).
The real distressing thing about these fires is that some were deliberately lit and PM Kevin Rudd is calling the arsonists mass murderers which is spot on.
MODIS-Aqua shot of the smoke plume on Sunday 1.50pm local time
Google map of fires: http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...177826,144.294434&spn=15.316497,13.095703&z=6
Media coverage here: http://www.theage.com.au/ and http://www.news.com.au/
Really such a shame the evacuations weren't handled better.