@johobbit: Sends wagga a hot water bottle. Is it still quite chilly there?

Thank you & Stargazer, also, for hot water bottles. It is official that the month of May was the coldest it ever was in Sydney since 1957. Morning temperatures of 3C & 5C in the Western Suburbs at 6.00AM, and it wasn't even winter yet, which started officially, yesterday. Now, it might be a bit milder with rain on the way. We are expected to get an El Niño event, later this year. That means drought conditions and soaring summer temperatures. I sincerely hope it won't be too bad, & that at some point we return to what is called "normal". 

Posted by: @stargazer

Summer has arrived here; today's record high is 92F/33C, set in 1945, but it is likely to be tied or broken today. And the humidity gives the air that heavy, dense feeling and makes it hazy. Similar temperatures are expected all week and some days will be even warmer.

It's hard to believe we had snow on the ground a few short weeks ago,

Here too. We set a couple of local records last week. I heard them on the radio, but couldn't jot them down at the time. They were similar to yours, stargazer, although maybe not quite as warm ... very high 80s, rather than low 90s, although with the humidex, the air feel would have been in the low 90s.

Thankfully all that changed, when last Saturday a cooler front blew in, and is staying with us at least all this week, with some nighttime temperatures in the higher single digits Celsius. Lovely! Has your area cooled down from the excessive heat, stargazer?

But, oh man, how we need rain. No significant precipitation for at least another week. It is now 15 days without any. This long period of no rainfall typically takes place in July, not June! So, maybe now July will be nice 'n rainy.  

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

It is official that the month of May was the coldest it ever was in Sydney since 1957.

I think we had better add piles of cozy blankets to those hot water bottles. Do you ever get snow in your area, wagga? I'm recalling not much, if any??

EDIT: I missed one of my most important points. We now have smoke from the many wildfires in Québec blowing our way, to the point where an Air Quality Advisory was issued today, particularly for people with respiratory issues. The sun was a strange colour when it rose this morning, and all day the haze has been very present.

@johobbit: I think we had better add piles of cozy blankets to those hot water bottles. Do you ever get snow in your area, wagga? I'm recalling not much, if any??

Thanks for the good wishes & yes, we have plenty of blankets. It never, or rarely, if ever snows here. Where I live is down in the Nepean Valley, & on the western side of the Nepean River are the foothills of the Blue Mountains, part of the Great Dividing Range. Travelling west, inland to Bathurst & Orange, the mountains rise sharply to Springwood & thence to their highest points, at Katoomba, 50 kms away & beyond. The top of the mountains is at Mount Victoria, & Lithgow, where yes, it does snow occasionally, but not usually for long. East of here, 50km away, is Sydney's CBD, of course, where sea breezes coming up through Sydney Harbour, especially Southerly Busters, modify the local weather delightfully on a hot day. The last time it actually snowed in Sydney was 28th June, in 1836, nearly two centuries ago, though even in Penrith I remember that we once had sleet, on a bitterly cold winter's day, at least for this area. 

Latitude wise we are at 33.87 degrees south of the Equator, so that might be roughly the equivalent of maybe Los Angeles, or New Orleans, or maybe Atlanta, in USA, northwards. How is summer treating you in Canada, this year? 

As an update, I'd like to add, that we have been getting news of those wildfires in Quebec, Alberta & British Columbia. We were told last night (8th June) that such is the smoke that it is affecting USA as well, right down as far as New York City, therefore likely in Minnesota as well. It sounds every bit as bad in Canada, as we got in 2019, when bushfires flared from Southern Queensland, right down to Victoria & South Australia, only ending when it rained, on January 17th, in 2020. We were told on the news that Australian firefighters have been dispatched to Canada to help, and that New Zealand has sent firefighters as well.

Johobbit, how are you coping, where you are, with this kind of emergency? What about stargazer, and other Narnia Webbers as well?

Definitely getting proper winter weather now. It's almost 8 am, and -2.5 C outside, 'feels like -5' according to the weather report. A frost!

Might have been 3 deg when I left home about 9.15 am

wagga, the biggest effect of the eastern Canadian fires here has been hazy skies, sometimes with ground-level smoke that has prompted air quality alerts. It looks overcast even with no proper clouds in the sky, and there's an acrid smell to the air at times (as opposed to the more-pleasant aroma of a small wood fire). The sun and moon are dimmed and orange-tinted, and at night only the brightest stars are visible.

But while this has been common the past month, it's not constant. Today is one of those ideal weather days - actual blue skies, a refreshing north breeze that scrubbed out the high humidity, and temperatures around 70F/21C by day and 50F/10C at night. Delightful!

Yesterday, our local NarniaWeb contingent planned a picnic and hike at a local park. Despite recent dry weather and the return of moderate drought, rain was in the forecast, though it was light during our get-together. After our hike and picnic we got together at an attendee's house and enjoyed an evening campfire. By then, the cold front was coming through and it was almost cool (even by my polar bear standards 😉 ).

@stargazer: But while this has been common the past month, it's not constant. Today is one of those ideal weather days - actual blue skies, a refreshing north breeze that scrubbed out the high humidity, and temperatures around 70F/21C by day and 50F/10C at night. Delightful!

I'm glad to see that things have improved, & that the weather has turned out to be so lovely where you are. There is nothing like an outdoor picnic to encourage the rain. I don't really like to hear of horrendous wildfires when they are a big worry to everyone & cause much damage. The pictures we saw on TV of how New York looked in such smoke & fumes looked as bad as anything I've seen in the summer of December & January of 2019-2020. 

@waggawerewolf27, I particularly enjoyed your first paragraph from your post above, written on June 5. Sounds like a beautiful area in which you live.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Johobbit, how are you coping, where you are, with this kind of emergency? What about stargazer, and other Narnia Webbers as well?

Thanks for asking! I can almost 'Ditto' stargazer's response to that for our area in SW Ontario. The Air Quality Advisory was finally lifted last Friday, when winds from a different direction blew in. Prior to this change, we certainly noticed the decreased air quality and limited visibility here (in terms of seeing the sky), and especially in the Greater Toronto Area (an hour+ east of us), so I can only imagine what it would be like much closer to the fires, yikes!

FINALLY, we received rain yesterday. It rained steadily all last night, which was much better than hard downpours, so the grounds are soaking up that refreshing, life-giving goodness. Rain is supposed to continue off and on for the next couple of days, yay! Comfy temperatures, especially at night, when some nights we will be in the high single digits. Lovely!

We still have a fire ban on (put in effect a week ago today because of the ongoing dry weather), so even though we are having good rainfall now, the fire chief will deem whether it is safe following these rainy days to lift that ban. We hope that we do not have another lengthy dry spell in July, but that is when it normally comes, so ... time will tell.

I keep thinking of June 21, when we will have our longest day. Thereafter, the days begin getting shorter, although this is not really obvious until August (unless one is very observant, which I am, in this case ). July is my least favourite month, being our hottest,sunniest, most humid, and driest, so I am counting the days until it's over, much preferring the longer nights and shorter days, the cooler weather.  

@jo So glad to hear about the rain — a huge help with the wildfires, especially if it does keep up. Back in Australia we know a bit too much about those too (except of course we call them bushfires).

Meanwhile in England, the weather has been downright HOT for days — high 20s C, which is merely very warm where I grew up, but it gets surprisingly humid in England, which makes it more oppressive. I went on a 2 1/2 day hike last week and stupidly assumed the sun wouldn't get that hot over here, so didn't bring sunscreen or a hat... I am now paying for that with the first sunburns I've had for over a decade.  But then on the last stretch of the walk it clouded over and was much more comfortable, and then there were a few distant rumbles of thunder, and I thought "Nah, it won't really rain"... and there were a few light raindrops that soon disappeared again and I thought "Nah, see, that's it"... and then the heavens suddenly opened with possibly the biggest torrential downpour I've seen since I lived in Brisbane.  Fortunately I HAD brought my umbrella!!

That was on Saturday, and it's been back to hot and sunny since then, but we had another near-tropical downpour yesterday afternoon (Monday), so that was another relief. I just hope the weather won't be too relentlessly hot in July when I have a 2-week hike in Cornwall planned...

We're properly into winter now, after the warmest May on record. Frosty mornings are suddenly normal, I'm using all my warm clothes, and using the heating (most NZ homes don't have central heating, so mine is electric). Not all my windows are double glazed, so one of my morning tasks is to clear the condensation off the others.  My hands are feeling the cold more, so I need to exercise to improve my circulation. Sunshine after a frost is welcome.

Today is the winter solstice Down Under, and yes, coracle, I'm having the same problems as you have described, with heating, right now, as we huddle in the same room as much as possible. This year, the weather has been truly brisk. An Antarctic surge has left us with heavy snow on the Australian Alps, near the Victorian border with New South Wales, & temperatures at 6.00am of -7 degrees Celsius, in some places. Here was -1 C, yesterday. We wondered what hit us.  

I must admit, after more than 10 years in Britain, it does still amuse me to see talk of the "heatwave" and "extreme" weather warnings and fears of a "hosepipe ban in the south" and the BBC running articles on "how to cope with the heat" and so on... when we've simply had a couple of weeks of mostly sunny weather in the high 20s C and it hasn't even gone over 30 yet.   But to be fair, I used to think a day that didn't go over 13 C was "freezing" (and it does feel that way after a hot summer in Melbourne) — whereas over here, that's really quite mild and pleasant. It's all relative, as they say...  

(I also have to admit though, even though I've got used to the sun being on the south side of the sky and the moon being upside down and Christmas being in winter... I still somehow instinctively think of the "shortest day" as being 21st or 22nd June and have to keep mentally correcting myself. Even though it's definitely summer out there right now. )

Posted by: @courtenay

I just hope the weather won't be too relentlessly hot in July when I have a 2-week hike in Cornwall planned...

Truly! Hiking in heat is ... miserable.   I hope that walking holiday is wonderful!  

*sends both @coracle and @waggawerewolf27 hot water bottles*  

And here, today is the Summer Solstice, a day I have been waiting for, as now the days start becoming shorter. As I have said before, unless one keeps track of the exact times of sunrise and sunset every night (which I tend to ), the changing light is not really noteworthy until August, at which point it really starts to become obvious. (The sun has risen at 5:43 for a few days now, setting at 21:06.)

The rain we had a week ago was beautiful! The days have become warmer and drier since (humidity is present), but much more rain is coming this weekend and into next week. Grateful for that precipitation and pretty grey days! Our veggie and floral gardens are absolutely burgeoning! ♥

Our daytime temps are mid 20s Celsius (77F), but always with a humidex now, in the low30s C (low 90s F). Nighttimes have jumped up from the refreshing single digits C to mid-teens C, which sadly is too warm for me to brisk-walk. It's back to the treadmill for me until we get a night in the single digits again. How I miss walking out-of-doors, but certainly get hearty exercise with all the daily care of our gardens.  

EDIT on Thursday: And sure enough, the sunrise has moved back a minute to 5:44. The shorter days have begun, albeit barely!  

And today, sunrise is eight minutes later than it was at its earliest time (5:43 to currently 5:51).

Much of this past week has been very oppressive with excessive heat and humidity, but storms came through yesterday, which removed the humidity. While today is very warm, the moisture-laden air has disappeared. Yay! This weekend brings clouds (always pleasant), with rain overnight Saturday into Sunday. It looks like there is a good chance of rain most days for the next week. This is unusual for July here and we are very grateful.

The nights have been far too warm to walk in the early morning hours, but tonight the temp is dropping to 11C / 51.8F so I will be out very early tomorrow morning, brisk-walking and enjoying that more refreshing air.  

Earlier this week, the heat was on, with a high of 95F/35C on Monday. This summer has been much hotter and drier than average, with a lot of air quality advisories due to smoke.

But yesterday was glorious - highs around 78F/26C, clear skies, and no humidity. Last night we enjoyed another backyard fire, and except for the mosquitoes it was very nice. We even managed to see Venus shortly before sunset.

Our latest sunsets of the year were earlier this week, and while long days have their pleasures I can't wait for those autumn sunsets and long nights of stargazing.

The earth was at aphelion (farthest from the sun) yesterday. In theory this moderates northern summer heat slightly and exaggerates southern winter cold slightly, but it's a much smaller effect than the earth's tilt, the main cause of the seasons.

@stargazer: The earth was at aphelion (farthest from the sun) yesterday. In theory this moderates northern summer heat slightly and exaggerates southern winter cold slightly, but it's a much smaller effect than the earth's tilt, the main cause of the seasons

Yes, I've heard that the Southern Hemisphere is colder, on the whole, partly because there is less land, apart from the dominance of Antarctica, itself. My husband joked one cold & frosty morning, recently, that somehow Australia & Antarctica are getting closer to each other. Though when we hear about extremes of temperatures in USA & especially in Siberia, or Canada, we don't notice any colder advantage. 

I expect you have all heard about Cape Horn, at the bottom of South America, & also the Roaring Forties, heavy seas, screaming along the Southern Ocean, from Cape Horn to Cape Horn, uninterrupted, by either South Africa, Australia or even New Zealand, making that particular area of the world dangerous to navigate through, especially by windjammers & other sailing ships of the past, right up to 1929, when, it seemed, something of the sort was used for transporting grain from South Australia to Finland, then back again, "Bound for South Australia".