a weird light...

I'm sitting here in my office, looking out the window, and I can tell you, it's really weird. The light is yellow and I can't see the blue of the sky. It's not clouds, it's not a storm brewing, it's the smoke from all the bushfires. There's something like 35 fires raging out of control across the alpine regions at the moment, and they're predicting that by tomorrow, one fifth of the state will ablaze. They're also saying that if we get the predicted 37c (98f) with the hot northerlys, these fires could end up being worse than the massive Ash Wednesday fires, which in 1983 killed 75 people, destroyed thousands of homes, and burned out over 300,000 hectares across Victoria and South Australia.

Here's hoping the weather bureau has it wrong--or that Melbourne does another of its famous weather flips. All the thousands of fireman and CFA volunteers up in the mountains at the moment do not need another day like Ash Wednesday. No one does.