Weather

[Granca]

Just seen this on BBC news. How terrifying

It is. My youngest son, daughter-in-law and their baby are in Canberra (for work) at the moment. I’ve just checked the air quality, as it has been very smokey at times, and at the moment it’s ‘beyond index’. It’s not really possible to go outside - and that’s at quite a distance from the bushfires.

 

[Stacia]

@Granca, that must be very worrying for you.

 

[Oberon]

So smoky in Canberra that there is smoke haze inside my house. To go outside I need a face mask with a particulate filter. I feel like I’ve smoked a pack of cigarettes.
The whole situation is incredibly depressing. It feels like there will be nothing left. Over 4 million hectares burnt. The fires won’t go out till we get heavy rain and there is no sign of that. Over the last week we’ve travelled between Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne. Some of that in planes, flying over smoke horizon to horizon for 600km, punctuated only by the pyrocumulonimbus clouds that have formed above each fire, many kilometres high (big fires make their own weather systems with dry lightening, fire tornadoes and intense winds). Truly, I want to cry. It is a disaster. And all the while Australia is pushing as hard as it can to do as little as possible to address climate change.

 

[Granca]

Oh dear, that’s terrible. The total scale of the disaster is unimaginable. Very worrying for you all. Stay safe.

 

[Granca]

@Granca, that must be very worrying for you.

It is, although my DiL has just texted that they’re ok in the apartment, although the smoke is bad outside.

 

[Jacqui-S]

Just awful for you guys Down Under.
I worry if we don't heat from you for a while.
Scary distressing stories on the news.
Keep safe xx

 

[Charlie]

It's a disaster that is making us all feel so very sad. What the hell has to happen to our beautiful planet to make ALL Governments do something to change it. I'm so sorry for everyone in Australia losing lives, homes, the beautiful countryside and the animals. xxx

 

[Lisa]

It’s so sad. I had a little taste of what it’s like to live in smoke a couple summers ago and it was awful, but you guys are having it much worse. Ugh. Such a terrible situation.

 

[Joy]

@Oberon I'm so sorry for you and all the others suffering from the fires.

 

[MrChew]

So smoky in Canberra that there is smoke haze inside my house. To go outside I need a face mask with a particulate filter. I feel like I’ve smoked a pack of cigarettes.
The whole situation is incredibly depressing. It feels like there will be nothing left. Over 4 million hectares burnt. The fires won’t go out till we get heavy rain and there is no sign of that. Over the last week we’ve travelled between Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne. Some of that in planes, flying over smoke horizon to horizon for 600km, punctuated only by the pyrocumulonimbus clouds that have formed above each fire, many kilometres high (big fires make their own weather systems with dry lightening, fire tornadoes and intense winds). Truly, I want to cry. It is a disaster. And all the while Australia is pushing as hard as it can to do as little as possible to address climate change.

I think the scale of the disaster somehow hasn't fully sunk in for some people? Certainly not for the government who are so obsessed with their own power and how beholden they are to their corporate sponsors that they won't act on climate.

 

[Stacia]

The smoke and ash from Australia burning is going to affect the whole world climate, it is a absolute disaster. We must address climate change.

 

[Oberon]

I think the scale of the disaster somehow hasn't fully sunk in for some people? Certainly not for the government who are so obsessed with their own power and how beholden they are to their corporate sponsors that they won't act on climate.

Exactly.

 

[kateincornwall]

My heart is heavy for you all , my daughter has a friend in one of the fire regions who has just evacuated. It is so terribly sad , for humans and for all the animals too xxxxx

 

[Aitch]

I feel so much for you all. Surely a whole country on fire will trigger the governments to do something about climate change now?

 

[Lab_adore]

@Oberon, my friend in Wollongong (just south of Sydney) has cystic fibrosis and keeps a careful eye on the air quality, obviously. She just told me that it's bad there at 165 but in Canberra it's over 1,000! I hope you are ok

 

[Granca]

My son has just called me to say that flights are being arranged for my DiL and grandson to return to the UK asap. The smoke in Canberra is so bad that they’re having to live in one room and not go out.

 

[Stacia]

@Granca, what a tragedy, but they do need to be out of that smoke. They would have gone to Australia with a sense of adventure and now this total disaster.

 

[Granca]

@Granca, what a tragedy, but they do need to be out of that smoke. They would have gone to Australia with a sense of adventure and now this total disaster.

Yes, my son is staying on for the moment (he’s due to return home at the beginning of February). He’s asthmatic, so it’s not ideal, but he wants to complete the job he went out to do.

It’s sad that the adventure has been cut short, but it’s just not worth risking my grandson’s health when they don’t have to stay. It’s just the wrong time of year to be there. I feel very sorry for those who live there permanently, though, and don’t have alternatives.

 

[MellowYellow]

I worry so for my sister and her husband. They have Rented out their house on the coast south of Sydney and are staying in their camper van. They were just telling me the plans they are making for evacuation, and how the local dog kennels have plans in place to move the dogs out. She sent videos of the sky a horrible red-yellow colour, completely eerie. So very frightening, they could lose everything including their home and their lives are not safe.

 

[Oberon]

@Oberon, my friend in Wollongong (just south of Sydney) has cystic fibrosis and keeps a careful eye on the air quality, obviously. She just told me that it's bad there at 165 but in Canberra it's over 1,000! I hope you are ok

Yesterday it was 20 times the level considered hazardous and today the smoke is even thicker. Aust Post has stopped deliveries to and in Canberra as it’s unsafe for their staff. It’s really unbelievable. We are in between big fires, which is the problem. Whichever way the wind blows we get the smoke. Visibility today was about 100m. 80% chance of rain on Monday