News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 58

What a wonderful early Christmas surprise I had on Saturday night. I had been at a fire on Friday and we didnt get home till early morning Saturday.

I managed a couple of hours sleep till I had to get up again and go do shopping and a few things that needed doing before Christmas as I couldnt leave till Monday or Tuesday due to having surgery on Monday morning and wouldnt be up to doing afterwards.

Went to sleep in my lounge chair Saturday night as I was so tired, only to be woken at 11pm.

Opened my eyes and my son and the family were standing there. I honestly thought I was dreaming! So Sunday was spent with them and going out for lunch.

Exchange of presents on Sunday afternoon (its not uncommon for me to be late posting things and it hadnt been done…… probably just as well!!).

As granddaughter had to work on Monday morning, they left to go home about 6pm Sunday night. But it was a wonderful present as normally we dont get to spend it with family due to their work commitments or distance.

Merry Christmas to everyone and a huge thank you to those who brought my designs this year.

Friday the 13th………. Wasnt all bad, we actually had a storm. If fact we had a deluge, but its not enough to get us out of drought condition. We watched the black clouds to the south of us, checked the radar, looked at the clouds again and then the radar.

Everyone was crossing fingers, toes and anything else they could. Slowly it moved up towards us but looked like it was going to go just off shore. One good thing it was heading directly for the fire that had been going for 24 days at the southern end of Fraser Island.

We watched the radar and saw it grow and thought great we are going to get a bit of rain.

Then the heavens opened up……. It was beautiful. It kept going which was even better and just didnt skim over us. I was outside watching, smelling this glorious rain, watching the lightning and listening to the thunder. Something weve not had for so long.

It was getting pretty wild with the wind so put my hand on the screen door to come inside when flash/boom and I felt a shock go through my hand and up my arm.

Hubby was right behind me and he jumped about 2 ft off the ground. That was scary, very scary. My arm ached for about an hour after but otherwise no lingering effects.

We are lucky we didnt get the hail that this system dumped on some places, about cricket ball size. Hervey Bay had recorded its wettest day since January 1st, 2018 (713 days ago) with 50.2mm today under a severe storm!Rain is officially measured at the airport.

We are 5 mins down the road and the rain seemed to move up the strait giving the east side a tad more than the airport.

We measured a massive 70mm.So there is now a tinge of green in the grass but it wont last long.

That was a one off and with the very hot days returning we are back to where we began. Nothing forecast long range again now.

That said if Mother Nature wants to do it again soon well take it!

For the last couple of years there has been a phantom Dome that is said to cover Hervey Bay. Many many times we see on the radar storms with plenty of rain head our way only to breakup/disappear before they reach Hervey Bay.

With the lack of rain and well below average rainfall totals, we have gone from a lush green area which included Fraser Island (which is classed as rainforest) to a dry dusty area, to the point that we now have water restrictions and have been declared officially in drought.

In fact Fraser Island which is normally very green and lush has now had a fire burning at the southern end entering its 22nd day now.

Once an area that would barely sustain fire is now burning extremely hot and well. Last night our dome again worked well.

Not even a crack in it. Areas all around us received some rainfall even if only 5mm but again we didnt get a drop.

Brisbane had a months worth of rain last night in just over an hour, but the rain didnt fall in the surrounding areas where there has been devastating fires in the last month.

It is heartbreaking to see people losing cattle (or paying a fortune to bring in food and water to keep them alive) in these drought areas.

We still have mid to high 30 deg C temps daily with areas to the west getting to 40 deg C for weeks on end now.

There has been 724 homes lost in NSW alone from fires down there and over 2.7 million hectares of land burnt out.

If anyone would like to send over their rain and snow, Australia would really welcome it!!All we Aussies want for Christmas is RAIN

Well this time of year we should be having warm sunny days with a good old Aussie thunderstorm in the afternoons.

Should……… but we have anything but this year. While Queensland and NSW burn, parts of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania are having snow.

Temperature records are tumbling with record heat waves and record low temps. The temperature on our veranda has been 36 deg C the last two days which where we live we normally have sea breezes and around 33 or 34 deg C is the norm for this time of year.

Summer started officially in Australia on 1st December, so 5 days in and we havent reached the hot stuff yet.

Has been no rain for months now and nothing in the forecasts for us either. The monsoon trough is way to the north and hasnt moved down, so no ones getting wet!

Meanwhile at the southern end of the country Australias lowest summer daily maximum temperature record was broken this week with temps 15 degs below average.

The lowest temperature measured during the opening days of December was -4.0 degrees at Tasmanias Mount Wellington early on Wednesday morning.

The highest temperature recorded at Thredbo Top Station during the 24 hours to 9am on Tuesday was only -1.0 degrees.

This was Australias lowest summer daily maximum temperature on record.You can see temperatures (max daily) in the photo and see just how much of Australia is sizzling hot!

Well its been months now since we have had a decent bit of rain and the paddocks have brown crunchy grass and its been a struggle to just keep plants alive.

Although we are on town water (for the house) we have been trying to keep the grass around the house green (to minimise the chances of spot fires should there be a fire in the bushland around us) and giving the plants a bit of a soak a couple of times a week from water in our water tanks.

We have to do it sparingly because there has been no rain to top up the tanks and there is no rain forecast well into December.

So it was wonderful to see some orchids and gerbera flowers last week.

Just added a little colour to what is otherwise a very sad yard and garden.

Of course the dryness here is nothing to what our poor farmers are going through at the moment with many, not only affected by one of the worst droughts theyve had, but in some parts bushfires have wiped out not only their last little bit of albeit dead grass but their homes and machinery and sheds as well.

But our little bit of colour is appreciated gratefully at the moment.