What is the Weather like where You Live?

[TheoK]

It's beautiful here. I should go out but I'm getting old and frozen. 

[Peter]

It's sunny and pleasant here, with enough snow left to make things pretty.  This winter's been pretty good; much sunnier and drier than winters from the previous few years, when it rained almost every day and was constantly grey and gloomy.

[Callaway]

I read that some people jumped in their cars and were barely able to outrun the fire.

Are you getting smoke from any of the fires, Lord Phlexor?

What about you, Eclair?

We wound up actually getting smoke from the fires in California, some time ago.

No, I am about 3 hours away by air travel.  We wouldn't get any problems from one that far away. 

Good thing you are so far away from there.

We were 850 miles from the wildfires in California, but the wind blew the smoke to us.

It was smoky smelling and really hazy for days here.

Not anymore, but yeah, we had smoke, nasty smelling stuff imo. The worst smell was the smell after they put it out. But on the main fire day, you could hardly see anything with so much smoke in the air, it was like a dirty orange tinge everywhere, plus it was really dark.

I'm glad that the worst seems to be over for you.

I was looking at this news website and it seems that some of the fires were intentionally set.

[P7PSP]

Setting fires and causing that much heartache is a good reason to hang someone. Here in the SF Bay Area it's rainy and cold.

[Parts]

very warm today almost 60F(15.5C)  inland cooler on the coast

[TheoK]

-8 ^oC. About 5 cm snow and sunny.

[Phlexor]

Not anymore, but yeah, we had smoke, nasty smelling stuff imo. The worst smell was the smell after they put it out. But on the main fire day, you could hardly see anything with so much smoke in the air, it was like a dirty orange tinge everywhere, plus it was really dark.

I'm glad that the worst seems to be over for you.

I was looking at this news website and it seems that some of the fires were intentionally set.

Yeah, they have caught a couple of people who they think lit fires. It's madness, they want to change the laws so they can be charged with mass murder or something. Good idea I think.

Some of the fires are still going and it was smokey smelling outside again today. They fear some of the fires will join up and create a very big fire front. Was like this 2 years ago when the fires went on for weeks.

All the time on the news now it's all you hear about, seeing so many people who lost everything, and some who lost family. I couldn't imaging being in my car with my family trying to escape the blaze only to be overrun by fire and hearing everyone in the car screaming from burning to death. Thinking about that blows my mind.

[renaeden]

Any fires near where you live, Renaeden?

I think that they are near Melbourne.

I am in Perth, about a five hour flight from where all the fires are.

I know a lot of people died and I think some of those people were silly for refusing to leave their properties, thinking they would be safe. I don't know all the facts, I just feel that a lot of those deaths could have easily been prevented.

[Phlexor]

Any fires near where you live, Renaeden?

I think that they are near Melbourne.

I am in Perth, about a five hour flight from where all the fires are.

I know a lot of people died and I think some of those people were silly for refusing to leave their properties, thinking they would be safe. I don't know all the facts, I just feel that a lot of those deaths could have easily been prevented.

Perhaps, but from what I've been hearing forest and bush management has gone down hill lately and they seem to be wanting to blame the greenies over that. Plus it was an unusually fast and vicious fire with the fronts traveling very very fast. Plus the high winds didn't help much.

[renaeden]

It just seems like they didn't learn from the past, from the previous bush fires.

[TheoK]

We have problems with snow "surprising" the authorities and blocking roads, cutting of power supply etc every winter. 

[Peter]

Damp and grey.

[Peter]

Any fires near where you live, Renaeden?

I think that they are near Melbourne.

I am in Perth, about a five hour flight from where all the fires are.

I know a lot of people died and I think some of those people were silly for refusing to leave their properties, thinking they would be safe. I don't know all the facts, I just feel that a lot of those deaths could have easily been prevented.

Do you know what materials the houses were made from, and what construction techniques were used?  If I lived somewhere that periodically turned into a giant blow-torch, I'd live in an earth-sheltered bunker with air filters and an emergency oxygen supply.

[Phlexor]

Any fires near where you live, Renaeden?

I think that they are near Melbourne.

I am in Perth, about a five hour flight from where all the fires are.

I know a lot of people died and I think some of those people were silly for refusing to leave their properties, thinking they would be safe. I don't know all the facts, I just feel that a lot of those deaths could have easily been prevented.

Do you know what materials the houses were made from, and what construction techniques were used?  If I lived somewhere that periodically turned into a giant blow-torch, I'd live in an earth-sheltered bunker with air filters and an emergency oxygen supply.

Fuck, if you had the money you'd live in a house like that already, fire prone area or not. 

[Peter]

In the wake of the worst wildfires in Australian history and the country’s worst natural disaster, Victoria Premier John Brumby is expected to introduce the toughest building standards in Australia’s history for areas prone to bushfires. Brumby, who previously opposed stricter building standards which would make housing more expensive, did an abrupt about face in the wake of last weekend’s “Black Saturday” devastation, which killed more than 200 people in a series of more than 400 fires near Melbourne in southern Australia and left over 5,000 homeless. New high-tech, fire-resistant building standards are estimated to increase the cost of each new home in fire-prone areas of Victoria by about $20,000. The common practice of building flammable houses in or near fire-prone bush areas will end.

Yeah, moving away from the 'big wooden shack' style of house construction might be a good idea in places where fire has been an integral part of the environment for millions of years.