RECORD HEAT. 18 Jan 1896. “These, however, are not extreme readings, as the thermometer has several times risen above 110deg. during the last 20 years. 110 deg F = 43.3 Celsius. This is 2 degrees above the BOM new heat record.
The southern division of Australia was visited between January 5 and 13 by nearly as great heat as at this time of the year pours down on the tropical regions.
High readings of the thermometer have been reported from Coolgardie to Sydney, and places in Victoria and New South Wales inland of the Dividing Range have suffered greatly through not getting the change of wind with rain, which usually puts an end to a heat spell alone the
coast
Sydney experienced eight days of remarkable temperature. On Monday, January 6, the shade reading was 105deg., which had been exceeded only once before, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were cooler, but on Friday and Saturday the register was 98deg. and lOOdeg. respectively.
On Sunday the temperature fell to 86deg., but the day was so muggy that it was more trying than either Friday or Saturday.
On Monday the glass took another bound upwards, till at 2 o’clock the register was 108’5deg,, which is the highest temperature recorded in Sydney since the observatory was established in 1859.
The next highest (106.9deg.) was in 1803. In the evening a stiff southerly breeze brought up a cool change.
Four deaths occurred in Sydney on Monday from heat apoplexy or sunstroke; and four cases of sunstroke, not fatal, were dealt with in the hospitals.
Throughout New South Wales and Victoria the weather was exceptionally hot.
At Bourke 113deg. was the register all last week, on Monday 114deg., on Tuesday 120deg., and
on Wednesday and Thursday 118deg. Such unprecedented heat caused numerous deaths,
particularly among children.
At Broken Hill (where it was 112deg. on Monday) there were three deaths from the heat. At Wentworth Mr. Joseph Higgins, solicitor, a resident of upwards of twenty years, was found
dead on his verandah on Saturday, death having been caused by the intense heat.
In Melbourne the temperature reached 102deg. on Sunday, January 5; 97deg. on the following Thursday, 94deg. on Friday, and 105deg. on Sunday, the 12th. These, however, are not extreme readings, as the thermometer has several times risen above 110deg. during the last 20 years. Inland the steadiness of the heat proved very trying, one hot day coming after another, and the Mildura people felt the temperature very much.
The change came for the districts along the coast and a slight distance beyond the Dividing Range on Monday.
There was a nice fall over a considerable breadth of country, but the wet belt did not stretch far
beyond Castlemaine, the Goulburn Valley and the Murray districts receiving no rain.