Heat wave

It has been hot. It's Summer here in Australia.

We've had a drought here for years now. I live in near Ballarat, and we have stage 4 water restrictions. But this week there has been an unusual heat wave. Kyoko might think that 34 degrees celsius is hot, and normally she'd be right, but in the last few weeks you'd be more likely to hear someone say, "Oh, only mid 30's. That's better!"

Yesterday (Saturday the 7th) was the worst day yet. Poor Byron had to stay inside, but he entertained himself watching dust swirling up into the sky. The wind gusts were over 80kph, and the bottom half of the sky was dirty with dust. Later on it cooled off a bit, and we let him play outside for a while.

The temperature here got to almost 44 degrees (that's 111 F). Melbourne (an hour away) got to 46.4. All over the state there have been terrible bushfires. Many people who live in little country towns have been caught in their cars and houses. In the news they said that in some cases one person in the car survived but everyone else with them died. That would be unimaginably awful. They say the death toll will get to 40! Makes me feel sad...

We haven't had any fires near here. A few years ago they came within a few kilometers, but it was under control, and only two houses were lost.

Well, the kids are both asleep, so I'm going to make the most of it and knit... a sock Ü