as low as 7° C some nights recently. Yes, I can hear the snorts of laughter from those of you in colder climes. I know by your standards this isn't all that cold but for Perth, Western Australia, it's exceptionally nippy for this time of the year. It's supposedly still autumn - a time when things start to cool down and we have some rain but not usually such low temperatures.
The thing is the cooling down isn't usually so early or so dramatic and we're not set up for it yet. Well, truth be told, we never are quite ready for it. Winter always seems to catch Perth folk a bit by surprise. It's probably down to the fact that we have pleasantly warm temperatures for most of the year. That said, while average maximum temperatures are mostly low thirties in summer, we do get heatwave spikes of 38-39° C not infrequently these days so not always so pleasant. Then winter arrives and we're suddenly forced into digging out woolies, track pants and boots - and in my case fingerless gloves so I can type - plus change over from lightweight summer blankets to winter ready quilts and doonas.
It's not as if we don't know this is going to happen at some point but when the maximum day time temperature was 30° C only a week ago a drop to an overnight low to around 7 or 8° C is a bit of a shock to the system. We've actually had the heater on in the evening, something I can't remember ever doing before earlier than mid June.
Then just when things had got a little warmer - the overnight temperatures having reached the teens - last night we had a succession of storms - lightning and thunder that made the house shake as well as heavy rain - the last has continued all morning. Sigh. I don't think we can delude ourselves any longer. Winter is here albeit a little early.
2 comments:
Even though I don't think you Aussies know how to spell winter, I just sent warm toques to my friends in Melbourne because I know they fear the onset of the dreaded cold season. My God, they might even get a touch of frost now and then! But they will bravely soldier on and now they have warm hats to keep the frostbite from their ears. About three or four years ago, we set a record here one cold night when it dipped to minus 34. Now that's winter.
It does get pretty cold in the mountains in the south east - there's a big ski season there - and Tasmania has snowy winters but you're right, for the rest of us not so much. When Pisces and I visited Tasmania a while back it was the first time he'd seen snow and I had to stop the car so he could get out and touch it. I've lived in colder climes so it wasn't such a novelty for me.
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