Saturday, January 31, 2009

Just in case you felt like complaining it's too cold...

Actually this may be the start of a bad time -- Australia is already the driest continent and global warming is real (not that it feels so warm here in Toronto today!).

Once-in-century Australian heatwave claims lives, homes

MELBOURNE (AFP) - Australia's second-largest city Melbourne was struggling to cope Saturday with a once-in-a-century heatwave that has claimed dozens of lives and sparked wildfires that have razed up to 20 homes.

More than 500,000 houses and businesses in the city of five million were left without power on Friday night after an electrical substation exploded in the heat.

Emergency services were stretched to breaking point as dozens of people succumbed to heat-induced exhaustion.

Temperatures in Victoria state topped 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) for a record-breaking third consecutive day on Friday, when up to 20 homes and a timber plantation were destroyed in a 6,500-hectare (16,000-acre) blaze.

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