Aussie smoke

[terbang]

Flew up and down NZ's main trunk yesterday and there is a lot of smoke in our atmosphere at the moment. It goes right up to 24000 feet and has some quite thick brown layers. I guess it is smoke from burning gum trees..?
Doing a tasman today so I suspect all will be further revealed and wil try to get a picky.

[Big Dave]

It's houses. 30 or more so far. Serious shit. And they got no water.

[wildpudding]

What are you flying mate?

[Hillbilly]

It's houses. 30 or more so far. Serious shit. And they got no water.

There's a fire with a 100km front in Victoria.
Drving home last night there was a lightning strike that started a huge bush fire beside the F3 on the Central Coast. Had to drive through a wall of smoke heading north, and the sky was glowing orange from the flames. NSW is currently 97% drought declared and the Central Coast and Sydney are on level 4 water restrictions.

Luckily I live in the Lake Macquarie/Newcastle/Hunter region which has plenty of water.

[SPman]

The front is now 240km wide!

Some arsehole lit a fire in Mandurah today - they contained it quickly, but burnt out 40 hectares and a couple of houses!

Gonna be a long hot summer......... (was only 36 today..)

[Hillbilly]

Bastards! Some firebug lit a fire in bush about 4km up the road. Burnt the whole reserve out, and got really close to some homes. Wild fires started by lightning strikes I can understand, but arsonists....

[mstriumph]

i was a volunteer bush firefighter mebbe three years back - thought the fires i attended THEN were worthy of respect .................... but they were infants compared to what is happening over in the eastern states right now

poor sods

if it was deliberate and they catch whoever lit them they should castrate the bastard, roast his testicles over the fire he's lit and make him eat them ..... yes, am assuming its a bloke - that's part of the usual profile

[marty]

What are you flying mate?

73's. with roos on the tail.


but we don't hold that against him.....

[Jantar]

I flew to Wellington on Monday afternoon and it was the thickest smoke haze I've ever seen. There was an inversion layer at around 18000' and passing through it was like flying flying through a brown cloud. Above the inversion the air was clear, but it was almost impossible to make out any features on the ground imediately below. Coming home today the air was once again clear. The southerly change has helped.

[ghost]

Good thing they didnt ratify the kyoto agreement, think of the meeelions they would owe in carbon credits........

[Motu]

Sometime back in the 1960's when I was a kid the skies were red at night from the fires in Australia.....looks like we'll be getting it again.

[Al]

Feel sorry for the people affected by the current fires.
We have had our burning permit issued and will be burning on our 40 acre block this weekend. Have enlisted the help of lot of neighbours and a contingent of firies as this is our first burn since becoming rural land owners!

Wish us luck...

Al

[Switch]

Sometime back in the 1960's when I was a kid the skies were red at night from the fires in Australia.....looks like we'll be getting it again.

That happend a few years back didn't it? I swear i remember seeing red skies as a kid?

[Motu]

Yeah but that was before they invented global warming....they had to call it something else.Fucking big fire or something like that I think.

[Hillbilly]

The smoke/haze kaes for some awesome sunsets though. In the Central Coast
suburb known as The Entrance, the sunsets are grey with a big magenta ball in the sky. Looks like something aout of Star Wars. Same with the sunrise! All shades of pink.

However when that fire came close a couple of weeks back it wasn't funny. I live on the edge on Lake Macquarie, and first the day turned orange, like looking though "blue blockers", then it got really dark, like dusk. That was at 1 im the afternoon. Couldn't see more than 200 meters because of all the smoke. It stings your eyes and burns your lungs.