bridie

Nice to know some relief in sight

Heatwave set to end by Monday
8th January 2009, 10:00 WST

Scarboro Under 23 surf boat sweep Justin Donnelly holds his line in the surf at Scarborough Beach early today. Picture: Greg Burke

Perth residents fed up with hot weather conditions can breathe a sigh of relief as the city approaches the end of a 14-day stretch of temperatures above 32C.

Bureau public weather services manager Neil Bennett said today marked the 11th continual day of 32C plus temperatures, but relief was in store.

“It’s been a long run but there is a light at the end of the tunnel with 28C on Monday,” Mr Bennett said.

He said the weather trend was not out of the ordinary with a 16 day stretch of temperatures above 32C recorded in February 1996.

“It (the temperatures) is not something highly, highly unusual,” he said.

“It has been as hot as this before – we’ve had longer runs than this

“It’s just another run of very hot Perth summer weeks.”

In fact, the hottest heatwave in the State on record was 160 days of temperatures above 37.8C in Marble Bar from 1923 through to 1924.

Perth’s hottest week on record was during February 5 to 11 in 1933, when the average temperature for the week was a scorching 40.7C.

“If forecasts are correct the average from Sunday, January 4 to 10 will be 35.5C – no where near the 1933 record,” Mr Bennett said.

Forecasters were closely monitoring the State’s Gascoyne and Pilbara region with current temperatures topping out at 46 to 47C.

“We are certainly keeping an eye on some temperatures out in the Gascoyne and the Pilbara, there is a potential for very high temperatures,” Mr Bennett said.

As for the bit I've done in bold, I blame global warming

The_Wookie

Thank gawd for that!

bigAPE

...but will continue on Wednesday

The_Wookie

Bugger!

breezeboylan

We're loving every minute of this weather, wish it could be like this all the time .

Tracie

The_Wookie

I don't mind it so much during the day, it's just trying to sleep at night.

mindblower

Ditto.

hitchcock71

i dont mind the nights - as i dont think its that hot at night - during the day i think its hot

The_Wookie

I think it really does depend on whether you have decent aircon. We don't have any and it is truly stifling in our bedrooms upstairs. So much so, that for the past week we've been sleeping in the living room.

If you have good aircon you can come home from work and kick it on for a few hours which cools the house down perfectly before you sleep.

breezeboylan

We dont have any aircon and dont want it. We do have fans for night time and find them enough to let us sleep. The air con is always on in work and it drives me mad. It can be 38 outside and it's cold in our office!
Tracie

bruce67

Yeah, just as we move from our very hot rental with no aircon to the new one with it. Could have done with the aircon this week

bruce

The_Wookie

It starts up again on Thursday mate! Just as we move into our new place with aircon too.

PoppetUK

So basically your not in the heat!!! If you are in an office your fine really (could be anywhere with all due respect).

Hubby has a physical outdoor job and its too much. I'm preggas and need some cooler weather. Feel for a friend that I bumped into and she is about to drop.

teza

Agreed!!! Decade here and still loving the heat. There is a difference though, hate when its too humid but heat is great.

Mind you, hasn't even been hot yet, I'm too used to +40C and above and it's not even close to that this year.

Funny how it works, people complain when it's hot, same people complain when it rains non stop at winter.... I find weather heaps milder this year than some past summers in the past decade. But after all it is Australia, known to be hot for summer (season we are in the middle of and it is NOT even hot yet!), and it gets cold and rainy in the winter (such surprise to many!). Not having a go at anyone, just warning the future migrants....

The_Wookie

How often does it really get to 40+ in Busselton? And are you really used to it? Or used to sitting in aircon/pool while its that hot?

Of course it has been hot already. Why else would weather reports state that it's a heatwave. You simply can't dismiss 35+ degree heat as 'not hot'.

I speak to a lot of Aussies, including family members, who say they can't stand it when it's above 40.

It's all very well saying you're used to 40+ heat if you're in a comfy big house with aircon and a pool. But if you don't and you're a regular Joe who has to go and work outside in that heat, or doesn't have aircon or the like it's a totally different matter. I remember last year when it was a scorcher and people were queuing up to get into cinemas because it would be cool in there.

Sorry for the rant, but I just find it a wee bit patronising.