By PAUL MILLAR
LOCALS might think they are doing it hard with the sweltering heat melting their ice-creams before they hit their tonsils, but earlier generations endured worse, without the luxury of air-conditioning.
Four days of take-your-breath away conditions might feel like a record breaking heatwave but as the old-timers would say “tell him he’s dreaming”.
Lindsay Smail, from Geelong Weather Services, said it will take something special to beat the ‘fry an egg on the pavement’ conditions of January 1908.
“At that time we had 15 days, when the temperature hit 30 degrees or more, in that month there was a period of six consecutive days when it was 39 degrees or more and two days when it hit 44.2 degrees,’’ Mr Smail said.
He estimated during that six-day period the average maximum temperature was 42.5 degrees.
Despite the recent hot-spell he said that an abundance of good rainfall in the Otway Ranges during the year had provided good supplies for the catchments.
However, Geelong’s normal December rainfall was under average, as were the Bellarine Peninsula and Golden Plains.
December was fractionally warmer, just 0.2 degrees above the long-term 1903-2012 average.
The highest temperature was 40.3 degrees on 19 December.
In March last year, we had 11 days of 30 degrees or more during the month, with the hottest day recorded on 12 March, when the mercury hit 38.3 degrees.
The year overall was one degree warmer than the average of 14.5 degrees taken from 1903 to 2012.
