EXCESSIVE HEAT AT HAY. A December Record. 29 Dec 1896. 114 deg F = 45.5 Celsius. The great heat was general throughout the district, as high as 120 being recorded at Mossgiel and Ivanhoe
EXCESSIVE HEAT AT HAY. (1896, December 29). The Riverine Grazier (Hay, NSW : 1873 – 1954), p. 2. Retrieved January 2, 2024, from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/140684062?searchTerm=december%20heat%20record&searchLimits=#
The Christmas Holidays of 1896 will belong remembered as being the most disagreeable and the hottest which have been experienced in Hay within the memory of the oldest inhabitant.
The weather on Tuesday 22nd was hot, but not unseasonably so.
On Wednesday the thermometer stood for the greater part of the day at l05,and on Thursday (Christmas Eve) was only a point less. Early on Christmas morning it was evident that a
record was to be put up, for at 9 a.m. the mercury had topped 90, and it slowly but surely mounted up until 110 was reached.
The night was very oppressive, and very few residents could claim to have slept well. The sun was not much more than above the horizon on Boxing Day morning before it was apparent that the record of the previous day was to be eclipsed.
A hot wind was blowing from the north, and bringing dust with it. At 9 a.m. the day was already
extremely hot, and all private picnics and outings were promptly abandoned. The hot wind blew incessantly all day, and the town was enveloped in a constant cloud of dust. Even sundown did not bring about a cessation of the hot wind, which continued until nearly midnight, when a slight change for the better took place.
Sunday was a repetition of Saturday in every respect (heat, wind and dust being again in
evidence), except that a change came about 6 p.m. in the shape of a south cool wind, which during the night was accompanied by a few points of rain. Yesterday the change was made complete by a fall in the thermometer of 35 degrees. On Sunday the churches, it is hardly necessary to say, were poorly attended, and the morning congregation at the Anglican Church were dismissed after a shortened service.
The records of the official thermometer at
the post office are given thus : —
21st (Monday) … 92 degrees.
22nd (Tuesday) … 99
23rd (Wednesday) … 105
24th (Thursday) … 104
25th (Friday, Xmas.) 110
26th (Saturday) … 114
27th (Sunday) … .114
28th /Monday … 79.5
The highest maximum reached last summer was 115 on the 23rd January, and the next highest 113 on the 17th of the same month,
There were no three consecutive days of all last summer which averaged as great a maximum as Friday, Saturday and Sunday last.
The highest temperature during December, 1895, was on the 10th, when 106 was reached, and the next highest to that was 103.
We may say that private thermometers registered about two degrees higher than the official instrument.
The great heat was general throughout the district, as high as 120 being recorded at Mossgiel and Ivanhoe.