HEAT WAVE IN AUSTRALIA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18501, 24 February 1930, Page 9

HEAT WAVE IN AUSTRALIA.

High Temperatures in Sydney. SCRUB FIRES IN SUBURBS. (United Press Association—By Klectrlo Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received February 3, 5.5 p.m.) SYDNEY, February 23. The temperature in Sydney progressed steadily yesterday until at noon it had reached 101.5 deg. It remained in the hundreds for the next three hours, with a maximum of 105.3 at two o’clock. Many scrub fires are reported in the suburban areas. SYDNEY SWELTERS. HOT BLAST FROM INTERIOR. 1 United Press Association-—By Electrlo T el egraph—Copyright.) (Received February 23, 5.5 p.m.) SYPNEjY, February 23. Sydney sweltered yesterday, and is doing the same to-day. Last night was the hottest for two years, the minimum temperature being 73deg., with 84 per cent, humidity at four o’clock this morning. The midnight temperature was 79deg. It was up to this again at six o’clock, and climbed quickly until at nine o’clock the reading was 93deg., the highest nine o’clock figures since 1922. At ten o’clock the thermometer read 95.7 deg. The wind changed from north-east to north-west, and brought a hot blast from the interior. Urban populations are migrating en masse where possible to the beaches. FIREBALL CAUSES ALARM. WIDESPREAD DISCOMFORT AND DISTRESS. (Unite* Press Association—By Kectns telegraph—Copyright.) (Received February 23, 5.5 p.m.) SYDNEY, February 23. While a thunderstorm was passing over Molong last night, a fireball badly damaged a house. The occupants of the house, Mr O’Keefe, his wife and three children, escaped injury by diving under the dining table. The flashing mass then passed along the street, knocked a man named Thomas Gadd senseless, and crashed into an adjacent house, one of the residents. Miss Leatham, being struck by a falling door. Yesterday's heat wave was responsible for one death, while fifty persons collapsed. Ambulances were busy in many suburbs. The fire brigades were also busy, though the latter, in some cases, had false alarms, owing to the extreme heat setting patent alarms in operation. Poultry suffered extensively, and one thousand are reported dead in Parramatta and adjacent districts. A dust pall made the day dull, and caused much additional discomfort and distress, both in the city and in the country.

Many places reported that the thermometer was over lOOdeg. At the weather station in Sydney the outside temperature recorded at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, was 110.5 deg., at which it remained till 4 o’clock. It then dropped steadily to lOOdeg. at seven, and 80deg. at ten. A thunderstorm about nine brought a few drops of rain, but that soon passed, and the promised southerly has not arrived this morning, though the meteorologist expects it to-day. FLOODS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. TRAIN SERVICES INTERRUPTED. (Received February 23, 5.5 p.m.) ADELAIDE, February 23. Trains are still stranded on the east and west lines at Forrest and at Loongana, owing to extensive washaways. At one place, 4ft of water covers the metals for the distance of a mile. ’Planes are carrying food supplies to the stations for the marooned passengers. The railway officials hp.\e been instructed not to book passengers from Perth, before next Tuesday, but the feeling prevails that the trains will not resume before Thursday.