The end of certainty—All signs point to the climate becoming more extreme

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/global-warming/the-end-of-certainty-20090213-876f.html

The end of certainty

February 14, 2009

All signs point to the climate becoming more extreme, write Marian Wilkinson and Ben Cubby.

When hundreds of small, grey-headed flying foxes began falling from the sky at Yarra Bend in suburban Melbourne, for some it heralded the awful events that would later unfold. It was Wednesday, January 28, one day into the ferocious heatwave that would wax and wane before returning with terrible intensity last weekend.

That first day, calls began pouring into Wildlife Victoria. As the bats were dying en masse in the city, ringtail possums were falling out of trees in the bush and distressed kangaroos, too weak to jump, were baulking at fences.

"It was just unbelievable," said Fiona Corke, a Wildlife Victoria rescuer. "The animals were behaving very strangely. We were telling people to leave dishes of water by the side of the roads."

By January 30, Melbourne's temperature topped 45.1 degrees. A climate scientist, Dr David Karoly, noticed the city's plane trees had begun to shed their leaves under the stress of the heat.

…

[navarth]

1. 45.1 degrees Centigrade = 113.18 Farenheit. Damn.

This is scary, really scary.

[aquart]

2. Australia is going to have to rethink everything.

They could lose their country. They could lose the continent.

[kestrel91316]

4. Not to worry. They can all go live in Tasmania. They won't even need

to change nationalities........

:sarcasm:

[kestrel91316]

3. We hit 113F all the time June-Oct here in Los Angeles. It's when we top

117F that things get downright frightening........

We hit 119F 2 1/2 years ago in July.