Oh my goodness! What an absolutely horrific day! The forecast was for us to reach 42C (107.6F) but instead we actually reached a record breaking 44.1C (111.38F) for our area. What was even worse was the fact that the bushfire crisis in Victoria worsened terribly - hundreds of homes have already been lost and they are expecting the death toll to rise signicantly as well.
The below photo is NOT mine but is compliments of NineMSN
The closest fire burning to us is SW of here and all radio reports were that it was continuing to grow signifcantly in size and devastation. For much of today, the wind was strong from the N to NW which meant unfortunately we weren't able to get out in the pool because we had to remove the shade cover - so inside with the air conditioner we stayed.
Later in the afternoon though - the wind eased somewhat BUT that which was still blowing, brought with it thick smoke from the fires burning NW of here - it was so thick that it significantly blocked out the sun and provided enough relief that the boys decided to get in the pool for a while - it was actually more like a warm bath BUT they had fun anyway.
Here's a few photos I took as the thick smoke slowly made it's way towards us! I haven't altered these photos in any way - the colour is indeed true to life!
The dip in the pool ended up being very short lived because it wasn't long before we started to get black litter falling from the sky and the occasional burnt gum leaf too! Needless to say everyone was out of the pool and the cover put on very quickly.
As the smoke continued to stream overhead and more of the sun was blocked out, it became darker and seemed so much later than it really was - only about 5.30pm. The smell of smoke was really bad and then, we got a shift in the wind to the W and then to the SW - that was the shift we were worried about because of the direction in which the fire was to us.
We spent the night listening to the local ABC radio, hearing the stories of tragedy affecting so many people in our area - people who had lost their homes, saved their homes but were traumatised by what they'd been through, farmers who feared they'd lost all their livestock and others who were trying to contact loved ones and friends. As the night went on the wind from the SW was horrendous - it was so very very gusty and one could just imagine the impact it was having on the flames of the fires that were burning.
We couldn't sleep - although we'd had the power flicker off and on a couple of times, we still had power - the air conditioner was still going and it was so much cooler inside BUT there was too much going through our minds - we were as prepared as we could be, BUT the thought that the fire would keep travelling throughout the night was just all too real - it was still some distance away BUT then again it didn't seem all that far away either.
Thankfully as the night went on, the wind did die down and we even got a little rain - the only problem was that it was 'Black Rain' which meant that everything outside was going to be covered in a layer of ash. We went to bed in the early hours of the morning, hoping for more rain and that conditions would ease by morning!
Until next time,
