HEAT WAVES AT BOURKE. 6 Feb 1906. 120 deg F = 48.8 Degrees Celsius. Comparatively few deaths have been recorded this summer as the direct result of the abnormal heat — sad though those few have been — goes to prove that present conditions have not been so severe as those of the former period.
HEAT WAVES AT BOURKE. (1906, February 6). The Riverine Grazier (Hay, NSW : 1873 – 1954), p. 4. Retrieved August 28, 2024, from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/141255919?searchTerm=heat%20waves&searchLimits=#
A Comparison.
We sincerely trust that the very trying time we have experienced for the last five or six weeks will prove to have been the worst that Old Sol could do for us this summer. The ‘Heat Wave’ of 1896 has become an historical epoch. Then deaths were recorded day after day for weeks.
Young and old succumbed, and terrible tales of suffering were told all over the colony. It will doubtless surprise our readers to learn that the heat for the 38 days ending 25th inst. exceeded that of a corresponding period of the memorable 1895-6 season in the total — that is, adding the maximum of each day together by 27 degrees.
Perhaps a clearer way to put it is to say that the heat for the period from 19th December, 1895, to 25th January, 1896, averaged 107. 34 degrees each day, while for the same period, 1905-6, it averaged 108.05 degrees per day. We have not the minimum figures, but we are of opinion that the minimum of the latter period must be considerably less than in 1895-6. Then we remember sweltering night after sweltering night, no breeze or a dry hot blast.
The present season, we are thankful to say, has, so far, not been ‘too bad’ as far as the nights have been concerned. The fact that comparatively few deaths have been recorded this summer as the direct result of the abnormal heat — sad though those few have been — goes to prove that present conditions have not been so severe as those of the former period, not with standing that the daily average heat has been greater.
The following tabulated list of maximum readings of the thermometer for the corresponding periods of the two heat waves is of interest : —
December 1895-6 1905-6.
19 90 111
20 100 112
21 94 106
22 88 110
23 82 117
24 88 118
25 93 110
26 104 113
27 108 113
28 113 93
29 104 107
30 93 98
31 93 98
January 1 98 94
2 103 101
3 102 104
4 106 110
5 106 112
6 113 115
7 118 120
8 117 116
9 113 98
10 108 99
11 109 103
12 110 97
113 114 101
14 115 102
15 120 103
16 118 108
17 118 112
18 116 110
19 120 115
20 119 117
21 114 113
22 119 105
23 118 117
24 119 120
25 116 108
Totals … 4079 4106
Aroragoa … 107.34 108.05