We're in the Middle of a Heatwave

and it is hot.

This is what a previously flourishing vegetable garden looks like after nearly a week of temperatures ranging from 34.4° C to 42.5°C.

This was sweetcorn and tomatoes

and this was snake beans.

while this is all that remains of the cape gooseberries, zucchinis and butternut squash.










These are the actual temperatures we've had in the last week or so starting with an unusually low 26.4° C on February 3. Then it started to warm up:

February  4    31.2° C
February  5    34.4° C
February  6    34.3° C
February  7    40.4° C
February  8    42.5° C
February  9    41.2° C
 and today it has already reached 40.3° C.

It's supposed to be cooling down a bit tomorrow. We're expecting 38° C with mid to low thirties for the rest of the week but somehow I don't think this will save the rest of the vegies. I have put shadecloth covers over the most vulnerable but that only protects from sun scorch. Dehydration is something else entirely.

I should say that it is commonplace here to have a burst of hot weather (even into the forties) at the beginning of February. What isn't common is for the maximum to be over 40° C for so long. In fact if tomorrow is over 40 we'll break a heatwave record which dates back to the 1930s. But that's one record I'll be happy not to break.