Dear Australia

[Tommy]

Dear Australia,

With the exception of those few warm and comfortable people who live in the land of fruits, nut and earthquakes, I feel that I speak for the vast majority of Club Cobra members who live in the northern hemisphere when I offer this respectful plea. May we PLEASE have summer back? Are you through with it yet? We promise to give it back again next year, but we need it badly right now. So if you can spare a little summer, would you please tell it to head back north. Thank you for your kind consideration.

[Donunder]

Mate you're welcome to it!!!
We've just endured our longest and hottest summer in eighty years and we're now battening down for the first cyclone of the year, a Cat4 (second most severe) due to cross the central coast of Queensland tomorrow morning with wind gusts of 270 kmh and possibly 300 mm of rain in twenty four hours.
I know you guys have had a disastrous winter -- we have friends in Concord outside of Boston -- and we can't believe the snow you're copping. I even saw a snow storm on one of your weather channels where there were lightning flashes among the falling snow. Weird!
Let's both hope for kinder conditions in the weeks to come.

[Dimis]

Snow? What's that?

[Rog246]

Originally Posted by Dimis

Snow? What's that?

Snow...............isn't he the old bloke at work who should have retired but can't afford to yet 'cause his kids still live at home !

[Donunder]

The morning news is that this cyclone has intensified to a Cat 5 and we're expecting 295 kmh wind gusts and up to 400 mm of rain in the Bundaberg area which was subjected to devastating flooding only two years ago. Looks like the sugar cane crop for this year is gone.

North Queenslanders are used to seasonal cyclones but this one is a doozy and will strike much further south than usual. Fingers crossed for those in its path. Yeppoon near Rockhampton is going to be all but obliterated. Good luck everyone, we're thinking of you.

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by Tommy

Dear Australia,

With the exception of those few warm and comfortable people who live in the land of fruits, nut and earthquakes, I feel that I speak for the vast majority of Club Cobra members who live in the northern hemisphere when I offer this respectful plea. May we PLEASE have summer back? Are you through with it yet? We promise to give it back again next year, but we need it badly right now. So if you can spare a little summer, would you please tell it to head back north. Thank you for your kind consideration.

Sure mate, when we've finished with it. Be careful what you wish for though as our forecast for this weekend in Adelaide is 40 deg C or about 105 deg F
Don't listen to those blokes grizzling in Queensland about a bit of summer rain and some gully breezes....the real summers are in South Australia.
Cheers,
Glen

[Jaydee]

I still prefer + 40 then -40 and digging your car out of the snow.
Cold will kill you, and it hurts. Cold beer in the shade doesn't.
JD

[jcraigau]

49C (120) in Roebourne yesterday, I think they are over summer as well...

[boxhead]

Just so the Qld mob know that there is other locations out side of Queensland.
A severe category 4 has also crossed the coast of the far north in the Northern Territory.
[IMG][/IMG]

Meanwhile at Pipalyatjara (A location of one of the Aboriginal clinics I manage) has not seen a max below 40 since very early January.
Where I live in Alice Springs, we had summer rains in January, we managed about 380mm from memory, this was almost double what we had in 2014.

Originally Posted by Donunder

The morning news is that this cyclone has intensified to a Cat 5 and we're expecting 295 kmh wind gusts and up to 400 mm of rain in the Bundaberg area which was subjected to devastating flooding only two years ago. Looks like the sugar cane crop for this year is gone.

North Queenslanders are used to seasonal cyclones but this one is a doozy and will strike much further south than usual. Fingers crossed for those in its path. Yeppoon near Rockhampton is going to be all but obliterated. Good luck everyone, we're thinking of you.

[sambo]

We've barely had a week of summer down here in the southern state of Victoria. Coldest in over 20 years apparently. Nothing to complain about compared to our friends in QLD, stay safe up there!

[Donunder]

So there we go Tommy.

Two major cyclones impacting the northern half of the country. The Qld one is about an hour away from Yeppoon as I'm typing this, and as luck would have it, it will arrive at exactly the same time as a king tide peaks in the area. The seafront is already seeing waves lapping over the seawall. The northern one has crossed the coast of Arnhem Land causing major destruction to several indigenous communities there. And even here in Brisbane a monsoonal system, not associated with the cyclone is swamping us. Over 100 mm expected today and then a brief respite before the cyclone moves south to us tomorrow for more rain and high winds, and then hopefully moves off the coast and heads for New Zealand.

The southern parts of the country are experiencing abnormally high temperatures after weeks of fighting out of control bush fires in South Australia.

But apart from that, all's well and good, and things will improve as we move towards Easter and the cooler weather. I hope the snow melting machines in your part of the world are working overtime. It can be a strange old world sometimes.

[Tommy]

I never said I wanted your bad weather. I just need a LITTLE heat. ... Sorry to hear about your cyclones. He call them hurricanes up here and I've lived through many of them. I wish you the best with your weather.

[Donunder]

Thanks mate. You try to keep warm and we'll try to stay dry.

[deano59]

Originally Posted by Donunder

Thanks mate. You try to keep warm and we'll try to stay dry.

im trying to stay cool down here in Adelaide another stinker of a day thank god for aircons

[Jethrow]

Originally Posted by Donunder

... longest and hottest summer in eighty years ...

Sure, and I know some Nigerians who have some money for ya ...

[guye]

Dear USA (via Tommy)

We'd be happy to send some summer over. As soon as you give us back our dollar parity! All my car parts are costing a fortune to import right now! So, bring it back up to at least 90c and I'll personally bring the summer over - I'll be there in a few months. :-)

[Tommy]

Guy,
I truly understand. .. Many years ago the USAF sent me to live in Germany. Shortly before I arrived, each dollar would buy 4 Deutsch Marks. The old guys referred to that as the really good time when dinner for four cost $5. The exchange rate had dropped to 2.4 DM : 1$ by the time I arrived. I leased an apartment and within three months the exchange rate was around 1.7 DM : 1$. It was a very lean time for me and my family. .... I blamed that situation (and many other problems of the times) on our President Jimmy Carter. So why I can do little more about the current USA:Australia exchange rate than you can about my weather, I can suggest that you start blaming your government. It won't help much, but it may make you feel a little better.

[damage]

It's pretty chilly in the USA today, this morning down in West Palm Beach it was down to 42f I had to go buy another long sleeve to keep warm and Florida is suppose to be like the Gold Coast. I can understand why Tommy wants summer back.

Still managed to go fishing though.

America is such a cool place to visit.

[Rog246]

Originally Posted by damage

It's pretty chilly in the USA today, this morning down in West Palm Beach it was down to 42f I had to go buy another long sleeve to keep warm and Florida is suppose to be like the Gold Coast. I can understand why Tommy wants summer back.

Still managed to go fishing though.

America is such a cool place to visit.

oHHH THAT'S a really bad pun !

[Donunder]

Originally Posted by Jethrow

Sure, and I know some Nigerians who have some money for ya ...

Thanks Jethrow. I stand corrected.

2013 was in fact Queensland's hottest summer on record, not 2014 as I posted.

2014 came in second, although it was our driest ever recorded as well.