On this day - 3rd October 2007
When the temperature rose to a toasty 36 degrees Celsius.
Sydney received gusty winds and 35C heat – the hottest early spring day in 148 years.
Of course, Australia doesn’t see a hot day without a bushfire. And as of this afternoon, over 40 were raging around the state. The F3 Freeway, the Old Pacific Highway and the rail lines between Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle were all closed shortly after 4pm after fire broke out near Cowan.
It was a day of dry heat - and strangely, it didn’t feel that hot. With relative humidity barely cracking the double figures, it was a reasonable day to be outside. Matter of fact, I spent a good portion of the afternoon in the shed and really thought the feeling belied the outrageous temp reading on the MINI.
A Southerly change has just come through, knocking the temperature down (its a more reasonable 27 here at the moment in the middle of the night, but the humidity is up around the 70-80% again) and brings promise of a cooler day tomorrow.
Spring has arrived, but Summer is here already.
It’s gonna be a long hot summer.
