MARCH HEAT WAVE. Melbourne Swelters. MELBOURNE. March 12 1934. “The record March heat wave still shows no sign of breaking. This is the fifth day of the heat wave.”
MARCH HEAT WAVE. (1934, March 13). Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld. : 1907 – 1954), p. 5. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/62333748?searchTerm=march%20heat%20wave&searchLimits=#
The record March heat wave still shows no sign of breaking. This is the fifth day of the heat wave.
Violent thundershowers, accompanied by a few rain showers, broke over the city to-day, but only made conditions more oppressive by increasing the humidity.
During the thunderstorm 600 feet of electrical railway equipment at Dandenong was destroyed, trains being delayed several hours. A railway shunter was knocked down by lightning and a cow was killed.
At Oakleigh a hole was burned in a house by lightning and a pony was killed.
Hundreds of people sleeping in the open suburbs were caught napping by the heavy showers. At South Melbourne lawns were dotted with hundreds of improvised beds. When the storm broke, however, there was a general stampede of people rushing home with mattresses, pillows and
bedding.
Two deaths directly accounted to the heat occurred at Ararat Mrs. Agnes Calvert, of Maroona, aged 81, collapsed and died to-day. A young married woman, Mrs. Emily Williams, died suddenly last night from the effects of the heat.
MELBOURNE. March 12.
The maximum temperature at the Weather Bureau was 100. 3 degrees.
Bureau officials said to-night that there was no sign of a cool change before the middle of the week.
During this morning’s storm a resident of Willlamstown saw a fiery object like a meteor or fireball hit the sea 100 yards from the shore. Following the flash and explosion, columns
of water rose 30 or 40 feet In the air. Currents set in motion by the force of the impact shook the walls of the house.
Many Williamstown residents were awakened by the tremendous crash in the early morning. The electric light was disconnected by the shock.