This is a photo I have just taken from our Backyard. It is about 1.30 pm Saturday Feb 7. The smoke you can see is smoke from bushfires in the Bunyip State Forest probably about 50 kms away to the east. While this is no threat to us we do live in an area that has experienced bushfire in the past. There are a lot of people with stories to break your heart about the Ash Wednesday Fires in the early 80's. We could be in the same sort of situation very easily.
Today is very hot and dry with strong, dry winds. At the moment it could be in the low 40's but I havn't heard the latest. It was 37 at 10.00 this morning. There is supposed to be a change late today or tonight so hopefully it can help the people working on those fires in extreme conditions. Thankfully we are not experiencing numerous days in a row of temps like this again as we did recently. There are parts of Australia that are though. VERY hot and dry. And up north there is major flooding with people trapped in their homes by floodwaters!
So let us all send good thoughts of safety and relief for all who may need it through the extreme conditions we are experiencing.
(We still have normal power, an air conditioner and fans so life is ok for my family.)
Irene x

Update 5.20 pm: Temp reached 46 + degrees Celcius, a new record for any Melbourne day since records began.