Story submitted by Eric Worrall
At least one Australian is not unhappy at the country’s recent hot spell. The following is a picture of something I pulled off a private part of my anatomy earlier this year.
Yes, it’s a paralysis tick, Ixodes Holocyclus
But I haven’t been bitten since, despite living in the Australian bush. Why? Because the recent hot spell has killed most of the ticks.
Ticks can’t survive long dry spells which are hotter than 32c:
Humid conditions are essential for survival of the paralysis tick. Dry conditions, relatively high (32°C) and low (7°C) temperatures will kill all stages after a few days. An ambient temperature of 27°C and high relative humidity is thought to be optimal for rapid development (Clunies-Ross, 1935).
Source: http://www.animaloptions.com.au/index.php?page=paralysis-ticks
The recent week or so of dry 40°C+ temperatures in Australia has disrupted their breeding cycle.
An added benefit, apart from the yuck factor, is the reduced risk this year, of myself and my fellow Australians catching one of the awful diseases associated with tick bites, such as Queensland Tick Typhus.
Global warming? Bring it on.
Now I have a thought that Climate Ace does work in the Climate Change Department and he has been given the job of trolling WUWT. LOL
No irony, Climate Ace? Great. Yes, I remember the “weightless” comment. His declaration that the coal industry is destroyed I don’t recall. As for the rest, I’d only be repeating myself. He needs to do a Merkel. The US are the new Saudis, and the Congo River is about to bring serious Chinese backed power to Africa. We have to use our own superb resources, and stop playing at being Green Euro-sophisticates when the Europeans themselves are bailing out of that fetishistic nonsense. Indonesia has now passed us as a coal exporter, by the way, and neither the Indonesians nor their customers are using that coal for art installations. They are burning it.
A new coal power station can indeed be 30% more efficient than the clunkers we use now, and which we will continue to depend on, all enviro-waffle aside. Who wants to drive a 30-40 year old Falcon? If McTernan is looking for a job, Abbott can get him to sell the world on our New Coal as a planet saver. If the guy can sell Gillard, he can sell anything.
Since I’m a believer in global warming and sea level rise, I’m not surprised if more warming than cooling records are being broken. If there’s some chill soon, and a Tambora style eruption to go with it, I’m really going to miss these years. By the look of that Northern Hemisphere weather map, it’s already too late to invade Russia.
Steve B says:
January 17, 2013 at 10:14 pm
Climate Ace sounds like our Red Witch Jooliar Gillard. Sounds like he is trying to save his job at the Climate Change Department. When I become Prime Minister it will be the first department to get axed.
Steve B, all I can say, with some appreciation, is that you may well be an improvement on the likely next prime minister.
John F. Hultquist;
I entirely agree that firebreaks and cleared spaces around houses are entirely necessary to combat bushfires. What I was pointing out is that in truly catastrophic fires, such defensive measures can be overwhelmed.
After the Black Saturday fires of February 2007 when 173 people died, the official advice for people facing fires in there are changed. Formerly the advice had been to make up your mind early “Stay or Go” Stay if you were well prepared to defend your property, if not go early. The thinking was that most people die when they decide to leave at the last minute and are caught on the roads or in the open trying to escape. Now the advice is if you have the least doubt about conditions in your area, get out early.
In my experience on Ash Wednesday 1983, when 75 people died, we were actually trapped in a seaside resort town (Lorne) on the famous Great Ocean Road where I had been attending a conference and I had colleagues staying with me. It was an extreme heat and wind day and a fire that started at a sawmill raced down to the coast with extreme speed. Getting out early was not an option.
The conference had ended that morning and people who left at about midday got out through the single coastal road fine. Then smoke papered over the hills. Then fires were down to the beach on the north side of town, and houses were burning. I was doing the usual defensive measures on my parents’ beach house at the south end of town, but I knew no amount of wetting the walls and filling the gutters with water and watching for spot fires caused by embers and no firebreak would have stopped that fire. Luckily there was a plan B. If the fires bore down on the house head for the ocean. Then our lucky break but misfortune others. The wind changed and took the fire northeast up the coast.
Those here commenting on the fact that we have had extreme heat conditions and bushfires in Australia before are missing the point. It is the frequency of extreme heat conditions that have increased the risk and occurrence of fires.
Certainly records will be broken with time. But the significant fact is that as the planet warms, heat records in Australia are being broken with much higher frequency than cold records, so that catastrophic fires will become more frequent.
mpainter says:
January 17, 2013 at 8:49 pm
Well Climate Ace, did you ever figure out your ocean chemistry problem?
I have been working on it. According to your good self, marine life (including whales, which are marine life) is ‘composed of’ CO2.
Now, a whale might weigh 20 ton (four or five times that if a Blue Whale). What sort of volume would a 20 ton whale occupy were it to be composed of CO2?
You have set me a difficult challenge.
41.6 at Canberra today. Our hottest January day on record.
I thought it was hot when I went outside. But I couldn’t smell the Booroowa fire smoke, which really calmed me down a bit, to tell the truth.
Didn’t Eric Worrall die from a snake bite?
It just ticks me off to read an article like this…. Or maybe I should say that I was TICKled to read it.
Steve B says: January 17, 2013 at 10:14 pm
Climate Ace sounds like our Red Witch Jooliar Gillard. Sounds like he is trying to save his job at the Climate Change Department. When I become Prime Minister it will be the first department to get axed.
=============================
I understand that a record sweep at the polls is forecast. And I agree that Climate Ace shows desperation.
An update. As I type I am watching the 6 pm news report on fires threatening towns along broad front north east of Melbourne. It brings back memories.
I think the Piers Akerman article says it best.
The extreme heat of Sydney’s summer of 1790/91 is detailed by Watkins Tench (1758 –1833) in his book ‘A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson’ published in 1793. (Available to download from the internet for free).
Watkins Tench was British marine officer whom accompanied 88 male and 20 female convicts on the First Fleet ship the Charlotte which arrived in Botany Bay 20th January 1788.
Of Sydney’s weather of 27th December 1790, when the mercury hit 42.8 C (109 F), half a degree Celsius higher than last Tuesday, Tench wrote: ‘it felt like the blast of a heated oven’. But the extreme heat wasn’t restricted to the 27th Dec 1790. The following day the temperature again surpassed the old 100 Fahrenheit mark, hitting 40.3C (104.5 F) at 12.30pm. And later that same summer, in February 1791, the temperature in Sydney was recorded at 42.2 C (108 F). Tench commented;
‘But even this heat (of 27th Dec 1790) was judged to be far exceeded in the latter end of the following February, when the north-west wind again set in, and blew with great violence for three days. At Sydney, it [the temperature] fell short by one degree of what I have just recorded [109F]: but at Rose Hill, [modern day Parramatta] it was allowed, by every person, to surpass all that they had before felt, either there, or in any other part of the world. Unluckily they had no thermometer to ascertain its precise height.’
Tench also speculated on the cause of the extreme heat of the summer of 1790/91, and he didn’t blame global warming, coal mining, or failure to pay homage to a pagan god. Tench deduced: ‘Were I asked the cause of this intolerable heat, I should not hesitate to pronounce, that it was occasioned by the wind blowing over immense deserts, which, I doubt not, exist in a north-west direction from Port Jackson, and not from fires kindled by the natives.’
However, Tench’s meteorological recordings were undertaken following strict scientific procedure using a ‘large thermometer’ made by Ramsden, England’s leading scientific instrument maker of the day. Tench also left a message for those that might seek to question the accuracy of the records: ‘This remark I feel necessary, as there were methods used by some persons in the colony, both for estimating the degree of heat, and for ascertaining the cause of its production, which I deem equally unfair and unphilosophical. The thermometer, whence my observations were constantly made, was hung in the open air, in a southern aspect, never reached by the rays of the sun, at the distance of several feet above the ground.’
It also worth noting that in 1790, Sydney (population 1,715) was still surrounded by mostly natural bushland, where modern day Observatory Hill in Sydney (population 4,627,000) is now surrounded by the concrete, steel and glass of a modern city, not to mention the tens of thousands of air-conditioners pumping out hot air into the surrounding streets, nor the 160,000 cars & trucks that cross the Sydney Harbor Bridge daily and pass within 100 meters of Observatory Hill.
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/piersakerman/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/heatwave_it_was_hotter_in_1790/
If all these fires are so ‘normal’ because there is no climate signal in the fires, why do our fire insurance premiums keep rising above the rate of inflation?
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
What political constituency has members coming onto international forums admitting
(1) they don't understand insurance rates,
(2) suspect conspiracy,
and
(3)wonder frankly why you aren't alarmed too?
Then tell you
(4) the fact you understand insurance is proof that
(5) you're guilty
of not understanding about the
(6) great conspiracy of
(7) oil day traders to
trick you into living the safest, longest, most comfortable, profitable, educated, life span
ever dreamed?
Answer:
The mentally ill.
Philip Shehan
My brother and his wife got burnt out in those fires. They lost literally everything. They ended up holed up in the Mt Macedon pub and their car, with all their precious possessions, popped into flame along with a whole row of other cars outside the pub.
But, IMHO, it is possible to design and build houses that would not cost very much extra but which would be largely fire proof. CSIRO has had a go at it.
One example – planes stay aloft because of the vacuum above the wings, caused by the aerodynamic shape of the wings.
Houses with cambered rooves can create much the same vacuum inside the roof space. This vacuum, literally, sucks in embers. A roof that is flush with the wall, has no gutters, and has no gaps between roof and wall-top, reduces very, very significantly the chance of a house being burnt by embers. Etc, etc.
Noelene says:
January 17, 2013 at 11:19 pm
I think the Piers Akerman article says it best.
Piers Akerman, OBE. Overtaken By Events. Akerman is anothery whose timing is just plain bad. His whole article is rubbish because today Sydney had its highest ever recorded maxium temperature.
Vicki Sanderson says:
January 17, 2013 at 10:33 pm
Climate Ace @9.35pm:
Well, no, the fire management , (“fire stick burning”) that many people ascribe to the Australian Aborigines, was in many cases intended to flush out game, rather than deliberately reduce fuel to prevent bushfires. There is much misunderstanding of the relationship of of these people to their environment.
Cook reports many thin spirals of smoke, which almost certainly is indicative of cooking fires which were kept burning whilst a family group were camped within an area.
My bad. I didn’t intend to imply that Indigenous igniters intended to reduce fuel to control potential wildfires.
Nevertheless, lots of little patch burns would have had this as a possibly unintended byproduct. As I said, and maintain, the fire regimes were complex. For example, IMHO, fires in tropical Australia were lit in such a way as to reduce fuel on the margins of riparian monsoon forests and rainforests to protect relatively scarce and particularly high food-value ecoystems.
Climate Ace @10.33pm:
Mate, you can speculate all you like, as you like. But actual understanding of cultural and social practice beats speculation every time.
Climate Ace says:
January 17, 2013 at 10:41 pm
41.6 at Canberra today. Our hottest January day on record.
I thought it was hot when I went outside. But I couldn’t smell the Booroowa fire smoke, which really calmed me down a bit, to tell the truth.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Nothing nauseates like a pedant confessing every quiver of his climate-anxious bowel to strangers, except maybe having that accompany confession that a lot of it stems from not understanding insurance.
mpainter says:
January 17, 2013 at 11:00 pm
Steve B says: January 17, 2013 at 10:14 pm
Climate Ace sounds like our Red Witch Jooliar Gillard. Sounds like he is trying to save his job at the Climate Change Department. When I become Prime Minister it will be the first department to get axed.
=============================
I understand that a record sweep at the polls is forecast. And I agree that Climate Ace shows desperation.
You appear to know a lot about ocean chemistry.. perhaps you could advise me of the size of a 20 ton whale, in your own terms, composed of CO2?
Or have you finally figured out that you are a WUWT embarrassment?
Noelene :
Sydney had a record high temperature today of 45.8 C.
To repeat the point made in my post above:
“Those here commenting on the fact that we have had extreme heat conditions and bushfires in Australia before are missing the point. It is the frequency of extreme heat conditions that have increased the risk and occurrence of fires.
Certainly records will be broken with time. But the significant fact is that as the planet warms, heat records in Australia are being broken with much higher frequency than cold records, so that catastrophic fires will become more frequent.”
“Those here commenting on the fact that we have had extreme heat conditions and bushfires in Australia before are missing the point. It is the frequency of extreme heat conditions that have increased the risk and occurrence of fires.”
Philip, there is far greater population penetration, far more population and communication and hence far more reportage. Not all was known and reported in the past. The fires which were observed and reported in the past were enormous. 5 million hectares in 1851, 2 million 1939, and 1.8 in WA in 1961. Once can spin forever, but they are our biggest areas of fire damage. It would take extraordinary conditions to do that, just as Chicago/Peshtigo in the 1870s needed the most freakish mid-autumn weather. I’m not saying we should compare apples and oranges, and pronounce the climate of past years to be generally “worse”. I’m saying those fires are enormities. Consider how dry Australia was by 1888. We have the records for that period. If that was happening now, it’d be pronounced climate Armageddon on the ABC and in the Age. Look at Sydney’s current dam levels and tell me what climate phase you’d rather be in.
On another topic, with the disappearance of aboriginal hunting, the undergrowth was not burnt methodically, which in northern regions especially, makes all the difference. Dawes, Tench, Clark etc moved freely through bush that we would now find impenetrable. The big obstacles for them were mud flats and marshes, not plants. Just something else we need to know a lot more about.
But please, tell me of this era when “dirty” weather was less frequent, when climate was more stable. When was that? Where was that?
Allen B. Eltor says:
January 17, 2013 at 11:57 pm
Climate Ace says:
January 17, 2013 at 10:41 pm
41.6 at Canberra today. Our hottest January day on record.
I thought it was hot when I went outside. But I couldn’t smell the Booroowa fire smoke, which really calmed me down a bit, to tell the truth.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Nothing nauseates like a pedant confessing every quiver of his climate-anxious bowel to strangers, except maybe having that accompany confession that a lot of it stems from not understanding insurance.
Nothing nauseates like a fool exposing every quiver of his climate-insensate bowels to strangers, except maybe having that accompany an implicit confession that a lot of it stems from not understanding the impact of record temperatures on his fire-related insurance premiums.
There. Fixed.
Allen B. Eltor says:
January 17, 2013 at 11:27 pm
If all these fires are so ‘normal’ because there is no climate signal in the fires, why do our fire insurance premiums keep rising above the rate of inflation?
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
What political constituency has members coming onto international forums admitting
(1) they don't understand insurance rates,
(2) suspect conspiracy,
and
(3)wonder frankly why you aren't alarmed too?
Then tell you
(4) the fact you understand insurance is proof that
(5) you're guilty
of not understanding about the
(6) great conspiracy of
(7) oil day traders to
trick you into living the safest, longest, most comfortable, profitable, educated, life span
ever dreamed?
Answer:
The mentally ill.
The fire-related component of my bush fire premiums, and the fire-related elements of my local government taxes, are rising faster than the rate of inflation because I am mentally-ill?
Sure, sure.
Vicki Sanderson says:
January 18, 2013 at 12:22 am
Climate Ace @10.33pm:
Mate, you can speculate all you like, as you like. But actual understanding of cultural and social practice beats speculation every time.
True. Over to you?
Friends:
I had to copy this in case anybody overlooked it and so missed the laugh.
In attempt to avoid justifying some of his/her/its twaddle, at January 17, 2013 at 11:57 pm Climate Ace wrote:
Yes! Climate Ace wrote that!
Funny? I laughed so much I had to wipe tears from my eyes.
You could not make it up.
Richard
Climate Ace says:
January 18, 2013 at 12:18 am
Nothing nauseates like a fool exposing every quiver of his climate-insensate bowels to strangers, except maybe having that accompany an implicit confession that a lot of it stems from not understanding the impact of record temperatures on his fire-related insurance premiums.
There. Fixed.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
You haven't 'fixed' anything except your own evil eye, on your neighbor's property, and freedoms.
Climate Ace:
‘The wind consists of air moving sideways. Fire action will heat that air. If there is a differential temperature between the heated air and the cooler air, the heated air will rise. In doing so, it will pull in cooler air at ground level.
In terms of temperatures measured at ground levels, the temperature outcomes would be hotter near the fire front and possibly cooler, but more probably the same temperature, away from the fire front.
The recent record hot temperature in Hobart is highly unlikely to have been affected.’
I’m sorry Climate Ace, but I don’t follow your physics.
The air mass bringing the high temperatures in Hobart was generated over the Australian mainland. According to your account, it would simply rise and draw in cold air. The fact is, the strong north-westerly winds bring this hot air from the Australian outback and bring it down to sea level. (Or are you suggesting the heat was generated in Tasmania rather than by the late onset of the monsoon and the absence of cloud?) The winds brought smoke and ash from the Lake Repulse fire to sea level in Hobart. Are you saying that all the heat from the fires passed up through the hot air but the smoke stayed at ground level?
The Sorell temperatures rose well into the forties well before the fire arrived. I don’t think radiant heat was a factor until the fires arrived. I should note that there were similar conditions during the last similar temperature (1981? 1982?) when I first lived in Hobart for a few years. The mercury hit about 40.8 and the ash dropping from the sky was somewhat more dramatic: substantial identifiable leaf-shaped ash dropping from the sky. Presumably they were below 40.8°C and contributing nothing to the temperature.