WE ARE FEELING THE HEAT
WE have had a warm winter – in fact in some parts it has been as hot as Hades. I was out in the northwest in late July-early August when it was 38C. The pool at the Normanton caravan park was full of grey nomads escaping the scorching temperatures.
Up on the Tableland where firewood suppliers are usually run off their feet during winter, sales have been dismal. Daniel Browning from Tolga Traders, which sells fireplaces and wood stoves, reckons it was one of the warmest winters ever.
“It was a s---house winter. We got about two days of cold weather. Usually I sell around 20 trailer loads of wood a week. This year I’ve been struggling to sell two,” he said.
I asked meteorologist Dr Roger Stone from the
University of Southern Queensland about the warm winter. He said it was all part of changing climate patterns and our winters were getting shorter.
Frosts were few and far between. There were no reports of frosts on the Tableland this year. Old Jack Frost is becoming the reluctant partygoer: arriving late and leaving early.
Avocado grower Jim Kochi from Tolga said the good news is that the warm, wet winter could be good for the fruit.
I’m told, too, that temperatures at the July Oak Park race meeting were warmish. Many will recall those years when temperatures plunged below zero at Oak Park, freezing water in pipes and diesel in vehicles.