A record 9 days above 30 degrees
Thank goodness that scientists aren’t warning of any kind of permanent warming of the climate that might prove, y’know, dangerous — otherwise a record-breaking run of hot days might be a tad alarming.
One shouldn’t jump to conclusions of course. As Jon Stewart quipped:
“Global warming is a total hoax. And I’ll tell you how I know. Because it’s cold, today, where I live. That’s jus’ science.”
…and the opposite applies.
I don’t know if this record run of hot days is some freak weather event caused by something else, or a demonstration of how climate change manifests itself. But at the very least this record being broken should be a warning of what’s likely to keep happening into the future as temperatures rise.
Insulation is back in my roof (just in time for winter, it seems)
Well, I’m getting there.
Last week I had a ceiling fan installed in the livingroom. It’ll help on hot days, and because I have ceiling ducted heating, also helps distribute heat better on cold days as well.
To do this, the old light fitting was removed. I’m hoping it might be worth something — I was never that keen on it, but it does appear to be an original, making it about eighty years old. There appears to be a reasonable market for such things.
In contrast, I really like all the other (antique) lights in the house — except for the kitchen. Of course, now I’m realising that I should have arranged for the kitchen to have a ceiling fan installed as well. And while I was at it, I could have got them to install the heat guards for the down lights in there. They were switched from halogen to LEDs, so not as warm, but still worthwhile to assist with the insulation.
Speaking of insulation, that got done yesterday morning. The old loose stuff had been removed last year. The very hot day or two last week was unbearable. Winter last year wasn’t much fun either. My estimate is that in a weatherboard house with no roof insulation, the temperature would drop by at least a degree per hour if it was cold outside, which made a big difference to the gas heating bill.
So I finally got around to booking insulation back. This document from the Victorian Department of Sustainability reckons the recommended level of insulation for ceilings in Melbourne is R2.5, but I decided to go for R4. (Confusingly, I subsequently found this Federal government web page which recommends R4.1. Hmmm.
The material they used was something called “earthwool” — which unlike conventional glasswool doesn’t cause irritation if handled without gloves.
The installers appear to have done a good quick job, but it was a tad irritating that they’d booked in for 7:30am (necessitating everybody being awake and dressed early) but didn’t show until 10am. Not to worry; I think it’s already made a difference… after they’d finished, I turned the heat on (damn it was cold yesterday).
Gaps were left around the down lights, with spare earthwool to fill in the gaps once I’ve had the electricians back in to install the heat guards.
So, hopefully having insulation back in the roof will make a big difference, and it means the various housey things I’ve been meaning to get done are progressing.
Other projects in progress:
- Sort out the spare room for Jeremy’s use, once the drainage issue at the back of the house is solved (water leaks in the window during very heavy downfall)
- Solar panels on the roof (I already have solar water… hopefully there’s enough north-facing roof space for PV panels as well)
- Fix the rattling laundry window
- A nicer, heavier rug for the livingroom
- Consider external blinds for some north/west-facing rooms to further reduce heat
- The constant tidying and reduction in clutter… have made good progress over the break, but there’s still a lot to do
Memo to self:
- Light globe for ceiling fan: GE Tiny Spiral, 15 watt CFL (75 watt equivalent) x 2, E27 screw
At Brighton beach last night
We were trying to escape the heat, which really wasn’t successful — apart from right next to the water, it was as warm by the beach as it was at home. (For you out of towners, it reached about 40 degrees yesterday, with a low of 24 overnight.)
But we did meet this critter. Very cute.
My garden thinks it’s spring
#vicrains
Trip home last night in the pouring rain was interesting. Train was very slow going between Hawksburn and Malvern, as much of the rail line in the cutting was underwater.
As the train departed Ormond, we saw the subway was flooded. On arriving at Bentleigh we waited about 20 minutes for the rain to subside. The exit itself had a minor flood (a couple of inches) but thankfully the rain had virtually stopped for the walk home, so all that got wet was my shoes and feet.
A short time later the whole Frankston line was suspended, so we may have caught one of the last trains out of the city. At one stage 9 out of 16 lines were suspended, and there were widespread disruptions to the tram network (yet almost no information about which lines were affected… grrr).
Getting home, the neighbours said they had a blocked gutter causing drips in the livingroom. Then we discovered a similar story at my place in the small back (spare for now) room — looked like the gutter above the back porch had overflowed. I got up on the roof this morning to check… the gunk in there may have contributed, along with the drains.
It appears that the heavy rain the drains backed-up. The gully trap is certainly close to full, and another neighbour says it used to occasionally happen 20ish years ago, so she reckons if it doesn’t rain heavily again today it’ll clear.
- Age: Wild weather wreaks havoc on Victoria — it’s most apparent that plenty of people have it much much worse than me
- Twitter: #vicrains
Given the disruptions, I’m waiting for someone to proclaim this is another one of those “once in 100 years” storms we’ve been having recently.
Lovely summer weather
Isaac and Jeremy have gone to Hawaii for Christmas with their mum and her family.
The Hawaii weather forecast appears to say that today it’s 28 degrees (C) and mostly sunny.
Given the weather today in Melbourne, I’m beginning to get quite envious.
Oh, is that thunder I hear now? Even better!
I know we’ve had a drought, but at what point can we stop saying “oh well, we need the rain” and start actively moaning about it again?
Not everybody minds it when it floods
From last night’s channel 9 news, live cross to a flooded street in Brunswick. Not everybody minds the wet.
Spring is here
To me, Sunday seemed like the first genuine day of spring. Warm enough to ditch the jumper and walk around in a t-shirt most of the day. No hint of rain. The sun streaming (on and off) through the window. (So much so that I do believe I may even have a slight sunburn on my neck.)
I suspect some of the events of the last few months have left me a little down, but whatever the reason, I am very pleased to see the spring.
It’s probably my imagination, but it seems like it’s been a long cold winter. It hasn’t really; the BoM statistics indicate that mean temperatures this year have been pretty close to those recorded in the last thirty years. Though notably, August was colder than usual.
| Mean max | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981-2010 | 21.0 | 17.5 | 14.8 | 14.2 | 15.7 |
| 2010 | 22.9 | 18.2 | 14.6 | 14.6 | 14.7 |
| Mean min | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug |
| 1981-2010 | 11.8 | 9.8 | 7.9 | 7.1 | 7.8 |
| 2010 | 14.5 | 9.8 | 7.5 | 7.3 | 7.6 |
Anyway, Sunday was a very pleasant change. Well, apart from the fact that I spotted two mosquitoes in the house.
