It has been the worst start to summer that I can remember, and probably the worst on record. To start with the country is in the grip of a serious drought, in some areas little or no rain for 4 years. I know some areas have had worse droughts before, but this is so widespread. I remember meeting a family some 50 odd years ago their 8 and 10 yer old boys had never seen rain, but the next year they were flooded, but that's how it goes in some parts of the country.
Following on the drought we have had some of the worst bushfires in history, covering huge areas of the country. Again we've had bad bushfires before, but they tended to be more localised, not such a huge area all at once.
The really sad part is that well over a hundred people have been arrested for deliberately starting fires in restricted areas and on fire ban days. What makes people do that.
Today was 43c 110 in the old money, in Adelaide, and while we do get hotter than this, not usually until February. Where i live in the foot hills on the south side of Adelaide we have had some catastrophic fires in years past, but so far it''s been pretty quiet around here, although a lot of smoke in the air. Visibility is down to about 5 Km. The nearest fire is about 15 - 20 Km away so we are fairly safe for the moment. Kangaroo Island of the south coast of South Australia about 60 -60 miles south of Adelaide has been burning for some days, and almost half of it is gone.
When we built here 15 years ago, I set up sprinklers along the ridge lines of the house and on the fences around the house, the house is built of brick concrete and steel, and I have a good fire pump with 27,000 L of water so I'm pretty sure we can successfully defend our property.
