Knobby22
Mmmmmm 2nd breakfast
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That's one reason I have a pool at my house.
That's one reason I have a pool at my house.Doesn't take much thinking to recognise how many critical elements of our society will breakdown in further temperature extremes. I believe our current first world environments are far more fragile than we would like to think. Smurfs observations about A/C, power generation, transport and the capacity of a multitude of devices to fail under extreme temperature loads need a very focused attention - before the heat wave.
It will be one of the necessary adaptions we need to make for the CC that is already certain to happen.
As a broad comment just contemplate what would have occurred if SA's big blackout had lasted longer than it did.I believe our current first world environments are far more fragile than we would like to think
As a broad comment just contemplate what would have occurred if SA's big blackout had lasted longer than it did.
At first it's just a nuisance.
Then it's a bigger nuisance because you can't cook dinner or do the washing etc.
Then you've got issues with not being able to buy petrol and things like communications networks failing as their batteries run down.
Then you realise you also can't buy food and that everything you had in the fridge is now unsafe to eat.
Then the water supply stops working.
And all that would happen just due to a technical failure, no extreme weather required unless it happens to coincide.
We're all far more dependent on this stuff than most like to admit.
We have had this conversation about the impact of regular bouts of 50C temperatures and the effects on people, the infrastructure, the survival capacity of eco systems. There is an excellent article in The Guardian that explores these issues and points out where it is already happening and how close many other cities are to reaching these critical levels.
Sweltering cities
Halfway to boiling: the city at 50C
In a city at 50C, the only people in sight are those who do not have access to air conditioning. Illustration: Kevin Whipple
It is the temperature at which human cells start to cook, animals suffer and air conditioners overload power grids. Once an urban anomaly, 50C is fast becoming reality
by Jonathan Watts and Elle Hunt
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Mon 13 Aug 2018 06.00 BST Last modified on Mon 13 Aug 2018 09.55 BST
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Imagine a city at 50C (122F). The pavements are empty, the parks quiet, entire neighbourhoods appear uninhabited. Nobody with a choice ventures outside during daylight hours. Only at night do the denizens emerge, HG Wells-style, into the streets – though, in temperatures that high, even darkness no longer provides relief. Uncooled air is treated like effluent: to be flushed as quickly as possible.
School playgrounds are silent as pupils shelter inside. In the hottest hours of the day, working outdoors is banned. The only people in sight are those who do not have access to air conditioning, who have no escape from the blanket of heat: the poor, the homeless, undocumented labourers. Society is divided into the cool haves and the hot have-nots.
Those without the option of sheltering indoors can rely only on shade, or perhaps a water-soaked sheet hung in front of a fan. Construction workers, motor-rickshaw drivers and street hawkers cover up head to toe to stay cool. The wealthy, meanwhile, go from one climate-conditioned environment to another: homes, cars, offices, gymnasiums, malls.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/aug/13/halfway-boiling-city-50c
I think the key point is that the problems start at temperatures not far above that which has already been experienced. So we don't need 10 or even 5 degrees more to start seeing the effects.We have had this conversation about the impact of regular bouts of 50C temperatures and the effects on people, the infrastructure, the survival capacity of eco systems.
Any chance you could send some warmth down to Melbourne airport? The heating would seem to be not working and it’s rather chilly inside waiting to board a plane.The westerlies and low morning temps rising to mid 20degs came in smack on cue with the Ekka show.
Any chance you could send some warmth down to Melbourne airport? The heating would seem to be not working and it’s rather chilly inside waiting to board a plane.
Yeah I know...That's at 40c, what about at 50 and probably more soon.
There's an example I hadn't thought of.To me this has always been an indication of just how close to the wind we sail on many things unexpected. If those temperatures that day had been a few degrees warmer, LPG tanks everywhere would have been giving a lot more trouble.
Meanwhile in Tasmania, which is not that far from the fires in NSW, flow rates in the River Derwent have peaked at over 30 million litres per minute.USA, huge fires across one side of the country and extremely bad floods on the other.
Sydney, fires everywhere and it's winter.
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