Photo: Christie Panozzo
Welcome to Australia, folks! Land of snow in unexpected places.
Admittedly, that photo was taken in Ballarat. It gets cold in Ballarat. Not usually this cold but, yeah, cold. Ish.
But this one:
Photo: Quentin Kelly
That’s in Lorne. Lorne is a seaside town. It doesn’t often get snow as a rule.
So (if you’re not from around here and subscribe to the Oz stereotype), you’re probably thinking, “Well, there goes that Aussie beach holiday we were thinking of taking.”
Not a problem. Come in summer. We don’t get snow in summer. Not even on our highest mountain.
It’s hot in summer. In fact, last year was our hottest year ever.
Of course, if you come in summer, you’ll have to contend with the bushfires. Apparently, they’ve been getting more intense and more frequent lately. It’s so bad in some places, it makes the phrase “making a tree-change” sound like a death-wish.
Black Saturday Bushfires. Source: Herald Sun
According to our government, of course, this is all normal. Carry on, folks. Nothing to see here.
They’re so not worried about it, they’ve just removed our ‘price on carbon’ mechanism that was actually reducing carbon emissions. That, you know, contribute to climate change. That, you know, is changing the Earth’s climate. That, you know, causes more bushfires, snow in strange places, floods, hurricanes, stuff like that.
But not to worry. Hotter summers means more time in the ol’ Speedos, right?
The Australian Prime Minister
Master of Something I'm Yet To Discover 
After I shivered and trembled at the sight of sn……..(can’t say it), I LOL’d at your Australian polar vortex. Then I Ewww’d at the Speed-o. Ewww. Anyhow, there is climate change all over. Snow in the south during winter is becoming more usual than unusual. I’m just glad we are still in the throes of summer and wish it would last another three months. It is never long enough.
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Yes, I thought I might get a few laughs from our North American cousins. 😀 That’s okay. We laugh at the Poms when they complain it’s too hot and it’s only 30 deg C. It’s all relative, I guess. What was even crazier is that the day before the snow, it was 18 deg C. Does your head in.
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Whereas I detest summer more than I can say: in Sydney the humidity is obscene. One sweats and drips all day, and then sits down to watch terrifying coverage of bushfires on the telly at night.
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30 deg C? Is that possible??
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😀 After the last couple of summers, 30 deg C is positively mild (and I am not a hot weather fan). Wanna try for 45?
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I was joking… but as a pom I agree that we struggle with anything approaching 30. I’ll allow you to enjoy 45 without me.
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I knew. Just maintaining the stereotype. 😉 Maybe we could go 50-50 on the 45?
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I lived through six consecutive summers in the California desert (Palm Springs) – where the mercury will hit the 50 C (122 F) mark for at least a day or two at the height of the summer. It is… extravagantly hot! Now I live in Los Angeles, where it is reliably in the 20s C (70s-80s F) about 90% of the time. That’s more my speed.
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50 C? Yeah….no. Not sure I could do the 20s all the time thing either (I could move to Queensland for that). I have too many fabulous coats in my wardrobe to wear. I need at least a bit of winter weather. Just not too winter.
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I hear you, sister! Last December I blogged about a scarf I bought – but couldn’t wear. Twas tragic.
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The naysayers to global climate change make me crazy. The polar ice caps are melting and there is scary extreme weather occurring everywhere … but apparently spewing tons of toxic matter into the air every minute of every day isn’t a cause for alarm. How sad.
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Oh, Joanne, if you could see what this government is doing, you’d be apoplectic. They are dismantling anything and everything to do with combating climate change – even things that are working. It’s…it’s…there are no words.
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Unfortunately we have the twin brother of your inept government here in Canada. I think their actions border on criminal. The oil industry lobbyists are very powerful here.
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Yes, I’ve been hearing a lot about the tar sands. Here, it’s the miners with all the clout.
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Exactly how I feel. I can no longer summon any up.
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Our only hope, really, is that the extinction-level meteor hits Earth before we can’t breathe the air or drink the water. Just sayin…
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You make a valid observation. Now, where did I put that telescope?
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It’s over there, under your carbon footprint.
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What lengths our lounge-lizard PM will go to for a budgie-smuggler photo op…
It’s back to the Dark Ages in Oz.
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Yes, bb – that’s a bloody good description !
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[prays for another ice age]
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Love it, H !!!! – it sums up in simple terms the madness with which we’re being … directed (only word I’m prepared to use, as ‘governed’ is totally unacceptable) under this regime. TROWC will stop at nothing for its friends: the frightful part is that it will do only terrible things for the rest of us.
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Oh, it’s just RIDICULOUS, isn’t it, M-R? One three-word-slogan, one slimy deal in the Senate and we’ll be paying the price for decades.
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I remain somewhat terrified regarding the mindless heaving masses in September 2015 …
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Your photos tell the story perfectly and the final one–icing on the cake. I also wanted to say I am really liking the changes on the blog!!
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Thanks, Sasha. I have become slightly addicted to playing with my theme and finding the next little exciting bit of CSS to change. 🙂
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I spoke to our illustrious leader about climate change a few years back in relation to a coal mine going into our town’s back yard (which I did a post on today crowds) and he gave me very short shrift preferring the safety of the back bar with the boys. He made it clear then that a) he had no time for women and b) was a climate change denyer. If only he was a sceptic the country would have had some chance – no I take that back the country has no chance under a man such as he.
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I can but only agree. And his response surprised me not. Sigh. Doomed. We’re all doomed.
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Sadly yes 😦
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Meanwhile California is under historic drought conditions with burst water mains from an aging infrastructure shooting millions of gallons of precious water up in the air. My brother lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and we have always feared him getting burned out by the wildfires. But no, In September came just the opposite: historic, unprecedented flooding and their town of Lyons was almost washed away. It’s the extremes that worry me so.
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Drove me mad when you Northerners were suffering under the polar vortex last winter and right-wing commentators kept saying “See, there’s no global warming. Look how cold it is!” I shouted “Ignoramuses!!!” at the television a lot. That’s why scientists try and use the phrase ‘climate change’ instead these days. And it is changing. These extreme events are only going to get worse. We had massive bushfires last year in October.
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Nothing i can say that hasn’t already been said. Why isn’t there a law against wilfull ignorance and blatant partisanship from national leaders?
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Because… because… nope, I got nuthin’. It’s utterly ridiculous and completely unacceptable.
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It often snows in Ballarat, but I’ve not heard of snow at Lorne before. The first time I ever saw snow was at Hamilton in the 1960s, a very rare event indeed. By the way Mosy, those touted heat records are only dated from records kept since 1910 – so ‘hottest year since 1910’ would be accurate, not ‘ever’. Just saying. 😀
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But ‘ever’ sounds so much better. Besides, I thought hyperbole was de rigueur. 😉
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Nice answer back in return of this matter
with real arguments and telling all about that.
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