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Yes, you're right: it's getting hotter
By MISHA KETCHELL
Monday 21 February 2000

Been feeling hot under the collar for the past few weeks? You're not imagining it. Most of south-eastern Australia has been baking in above-average temperatures, with some parts of Victoria on track for the hottest February since records began.

Melbourne has already had 10 days this month over 30 degrees. The city's average maximum temperature for the month, so far, is 31.2 - one degree hotter than the 30.2 average recorded in February 1898, the hottest ever.

A senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne, Mr Terry Ryan, said this February had also been among the hottest ever inland, with temperatures over 40 degrees along the Murray River.

If, as expected, it stays hot over the next eight days, February2000 will be recorded as the hottest ever. Mr Ryan said that over the past 30 years, February has overtaken January as the hottest month of the year.

He said that this month's heat was linked to an unusually high number of slow-moving, high-pressure systems over the Tasman Sea.

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Comment:
Hot today. Overcast and real muggy. Sticky.
My friend the ISP dude had two sons burnt in Saturday big bushfire. They're OK but the truck is pretty ordinary. Five volunteers hospitalised in Adelaide - one bad. Yup! It'd hot and more danger weather here right now. Weird weather. Send some rain!!!!

Regards from OZ

-- Pieter (zaadz@icisp.net.au), February 21, 2000

Answers

Later tonight. It's raining. The weather joker said it's tropical like. Huge floods in the mid-north of South Australia. I know this is boring but is abnormal. Hardly ever happens. Sort of seems to fit in with all the other threads about queer weather patterns.

-- Pieter (zaadz@icisp.net.au), February 21, 2000.

Pieter,

thanks for your continuing reports. I like to read them! Just ignore the trolls. We've had some trashing going on here, lately.

What is happening to your area now might be happening to us this summer. ):

Stay cool! Do you have a basement to hide in?

-- (kb8um8@yahoo.com), February 21, 2000.

ditto.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), February 21, 2000.