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I thought it would be a great idea to see if I could get access to a copy of that cartoon to put on here for you to see but wasn't able to manage it. I can't link it either, because the newspaper edition was a week ago or more. If I can, I'll give it another go later on.

Those horrible bushfires aren't quite over yet, but we can hope the worst of them are gone. In the news we learned of the Japanese firefighters ferrying water to Kangaroo Island to help with recovery, of the men sent from Papua Niugini based in Omeo in Victoria, & where everyone else still is such as the Canadians, the Americans & New Zealanders. I'm sure that there are very many people here who feel as grateful for the support sent by all those countries as I do. Today the temperatures are up, with an expected 41C maximum, with a total fire ban, of course, but at least now we can feel grateful for having a nice, normal-looking pale blue sky with a bit of white cloud cover.

We have had devastating bushfires before, in Victoria, 8th February, 2009, or in October 2013 in the nearby Blue Mountains in Springwood, Winmalee & Yellow Rock. Whether the South Australian Ash Wednesday fires, or the Black Friday Victorian fires, none have been quite as extensive, far ranging or as destructive to the places these fires affected, which spread from north of the New South Wales border with Queensland to as far south as Mallacoota on the Victorian border & then on to South Australia's Kangaroo Island. Usually the bushfire season isn't over until March, so we have at least another month to be careful over. Bushfires aren't called "the February Dragon" for nothing.

The rain was lovely, but I hope we get more soon. How are the snow storms coming along up north, now? If you are getting a little tired of them, they would be welcome here.

Meanwhile across the Tasman Sea, here in eastern New Zealand we seem to be back to summer after some patchy weather. The hot and windy conditions aren't great for our gardens, and in my city there is a total outdoor fire ban.

I am trying to water well enough but not wastefully - we haven't got water restrictions yet. But I do frown as I drive past homes where a soaker hose on the narrow strip of grass outside a home is actually putting most of it onto road or paving (where it evaporates or goes down the storm water drain). They need to turn the hose down to cover just the strip of grass.

I use a hand held sprayer if I can, but the hoses don't reach one part so I have to use an oscillating sprinkler to get to the fruit trees that are growing fruit.

Yes, I know how you feel about sprinklers not being supervised, Coracle. As never before, this hot, dry summer weather really has concentrated my mind heavily on water & its use, & how easily it is wasted. Gone are the days when a half-emptied glass of water can be tipped out. The otherwise disused water is now saved for the pot plants or for pre-rinsing dishes before stacking them for washing up. We save the rinse water from a load of washing for outdoor & other uses as needed, including to help clear drains from blocking up. The recent rains have saved us the bother of watering anything just at the moment, though the lawn has recovered so well it needs mowing. And I keep a bucket handy, so as to save the water I use in a 4 minute shower.

3 USA firefighters were killed when the plane they were using to head off a fire, threatening a koala sanctuary, crashed in the Snowy Mountains. It was so tragic, & upsetting. Flags were flown at half-mast & prayers were said for them & their families at church. It was bad enough that they had given up their own Christmas Holidays to help us. The plane had been based at Richmond, quite near here.

Johobbit, I'm still trying to do something with photobucket, but last June, there seems some changes have been made, & now it isn't doing anything for me, when I try to log on or use the site. I did ring the Daily Telegraph but on the Friday before the long weekend, all I could get was the right number to ring, which is something. I'll try again on Tuesday.

I'm about to spend the next three months in South Carolina. I will arrive in the last month of winter, which I believe will be fairly mild by the standards of my New Zealand home and the two winters I had in England recently.
Then I will have two months of spring, which I am expecting to be rather like late spring/early summer here. I'm trying to pack sensibly so I can cover cool and warm days, and the likelihood of more humidity than I am used to.

When I return it will be late autumn here, so my seasons from the start of June 2019 will have gone like this:

3 months English summer, 1 month English autumn, 2 months New Zealand spring, 2 months New Zealand summer, 1 month US winter (mild), 2 months US spring, 1 month NZ autumn.

How's that for 12 months?

I did get a link for that cartoon from the Daily Telegraph. Here it is. All legitimate & all. It has been driving me crazy.

https://metros.smedia.com.au/thedailyte ... ion=NCTELE

That is a lot of globe-trotting, coracle.

You're right: winter in South Carolina is very mild (especially by Minnesota standards). February lows in Columbia average 36F (2C) - similar to the temperatures we've had this past week, which are way above average and have everyone marveling at the heat and just waiting for the bottom to drop out. Average February highs there are 60F (15C).

wagga, that link does lead to the Daily Telegraph but a subscription is required.

stargazer wrote:That is a lot of globe-trotting, coracle.

Well, in my defence, I did live in England for the previous 22 months!

stargazer wrote:That is a lot of globe-trotting, coracle. You're right: winter in South Carolina is very mild (especially by Minnesota standards). February lows in Columbia average 36F (2C) - similar to the temperatures we've had this past week, which are way above average and have everyone marveling at the heat and just waiting for the bottom to drop out. Average February highs there are 60F (15C).

Wow! February highs here are more like 36C & above. January isn't finished quite yet.

stargazer wrote:wagga, that link does lead to the Daily Telegraph but a subscription is required.

Sorry, stargazer, I thought my own subscription covered a link here, but apparently it doesn't, so this saga has been a learning curve for me, also. When you get newspapers online, which only give access this way, I remember there were libraries attached to different organisations such as University & College libraries, often working in a network of campuses, which used to subscribe to files of newspapers & back copies which the students & staff could access by asking their reference librarian. State libraries might have them, too, for overseas papers. There used to be a time when the main newspaper reading room in even a council library as large as the City of Sydney used to keep back copies of newspapers from overseas for about a month for people to read there. Of course most libraries must keep the main local newspapers for student, customer or staff use, whichever is applicable.

This is as far as I got with the photobucket account. It is too big to post here anyway.

At the moment we are back to horribly hot & humid days, water restrictions limiting nice cooling 4 minute showers, & fearing yet more bushfires for the next month.

The issue you would be after is the Australian Daily Telegraph (dailytelegraph.com.au), January 17th, page 75. You have to go to the button which is labelled "Read the paper", & select back issues.

Someone posted jokingly on our local weather page that "Mother Nature forgot to take her bipolar meds" and....seriously. Last week in the middle of the week (Thursday?) we got maybe two inches of snow. Then on Sunday it was 74F. Today we're getting snow and freezing rain again.

fantasia wrote:Someone posted jokingly on our local weather page that "Mother Nature forgot to take her bipolar meds" and....seriously. Last week in the middle of the week (Thursday?) we got maybe two inches of snow. Then on Sunday it was 74F.

Relatable! It's been in the high 60's and 70's here, but it's dropping down into the 40's range this weekend. My Dad even thought they were forecasting snow... then realized he was looking at the New York forecast.

Meanwhile, our weather has been relatively calm and boring, highs just below freezing and staying above 0F at night. Slightly warmer than average, so again we're waiting for winter to reassert itself.

Sunday morning was clear here, so a groundhog would have seen its shadow. Six more weeks of winter sounds about right.

We are in the middle of a beautiful spring snowstorm; it started to snow on Tuesday, and, except for a few brief intervals, it hasn't stopped. It just keeps coming and coming and coming--with subsidence, we've had about 24 inches. Considering that some winters we get about 2-4 inches, that's quite a bit. We're running out of places to pile the snow, and debating whether we should brave the roof to free it.

The roads are a disaster, naturally (this would be the year that they switched maintenance contracts) with semis getting stuck on the town hill. Haven't seen it this good in years! Part of the problem(?) is that it is warm (2C) so very slippery.

My brother and I went out last night to shoot some pictures in the dark--all the trees weighed down, canyons along what are ordinarily sidewalks, and lots of odd lumps formed by cars and bushes.

fantasia wrote:Someone posted jokingly on our local weather page that "Mother Nature forgot to take her bipolar meds" and....seriously. Last week in the middle of the week (Thursday?) we got maybe two inches of snow. Then on Sunday it was 74F. Today we're getting snow and freezing rain again.

Quite so! A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, And droughts & flooding rains.

It is raining again, & I'm singing in the rain! There's a cyclone bearing down on Western Australia, a prolonged low from Queensland to Eden, on the South Coast & another cyclone in the Coral Sea. We are now expecting lots more rain! Yippee! The bushfires are just about finished. In today's 8th February Daily Telegraph the Hope koala has gone surfing in the rain. I've actually bought a new umbrella to replace the broken one I bought a good ten years ago. Thank God for his tender mercies! Send her down Huey!

Well, it turns out that we actually DID get snow here! This morning my coworker pointed out that a small blizzard of dry snow was whipping up outside the office; now we're supposed to get 2-4 inches over the next day! The temperature dropped from 67 to 30 literally overnight!

Meanwhile, areas southwest of here picked up a quick 15.5 inches/395mm of snow the other day, and a little more is expected tonight with ground blizzard warnings up for the eastern Dakotas and western Minnesota.

One of our local TV meteorologists commented that 'Old Man Winter is upset with our recent above-average temps and is about to do something about it.'
That something includes lots of wind tomorrow bringing in temperatures well below 0F and wind chills that will definitely get our attention.