Summer... The hottest for over 40 years?

I woke up this week to warm mornings (unusual for late August), a haze in the air that was quiet eerie and the rancid smell of smoke polluting the air.  It didn't matter where I was, south of Sydney, south west of Sydney or in the city, the haze was the same and the smell of smoke permeated the air and my clothes.

It was back burning and hazard reduction in the Blue Mountains and a timely reminder that summer is on its way.  We didn't experience bush fires last year, for the most part, but they are saying that this will be the hottest summer in 40 years in Sydney and the worst bushfire season for a very long time.  I hope this goes unfounded. 

I was in Sydney for the bush fires of 1994 (evacuated from my home for 3 days, sleeping on the floor at my bosses house along with 7 other work colleagues) and the bush fires of 2001 (on Christmas Day we were holed up in my house with all windows and doors closed, with wet towels around any possible window/door frame that ash could get in.  It was a 40 degree day and I remember watching the ash fall through the air like snow and cover the back yard).  Those experiences were horrific but not nearly as horrific as the bush fires, dubbed Black Saturday that ripped through Melbourne on the 7th of February 2009.  Black Saturday saw the worst bushfires ever recorded in our nation’s history. 

My point is, I'd rather a rainy, humid summer like the summer of 2011/2012 than one filled with heat and bushfires.  I hope the experts are proved wrong and summer passes by uneventfully.  It all makes me rather nervous.  Remind me of this blog if it is a rainy, humid summer...