Conditions
The year preceding the fires was exceptionally hot and dry and this trend continued into the summer of 1851. On Black Thursday, a northerly wind set in early and the temperature in Melbourne was reported to have peaked at 47.2 degrees C (117 degrees F) at 11:00am. This would have been the hottest temperature ever recorded in the city—although it has never been an official record, as there is no evidence the temperature was actually measured in full shade and the Stevenson screen had not yet been used in Australia so it was a non standard measurement. Further to that the measurement is based on anecdotal evidence and therefore may never have been measured at all, i.e. could have been an exaggeration or made up completely. The north wind was so strong that thick black smoke reached northern Tasmania, creating a murky mist, resembling a combination of smoke and fog. A ship 20 miles (32 km) out to sea came under burning ember attack and was covered in cinders and dust.
In the evening, a southerly change brought with it cooler conditions and light rain.
Read more about this topic: Black Thursday (1851)
Famous quotes containing the word conditions:
“Technological change defines the horizon of our material world as it shapes the limiting conditions of what is possible and what is barely imaginable. It erodes ... assumptions about the nature of our reality, the “pattern” in which we dwell, and lays open new choices.”
—Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)
“The circuited city of the future will not be the huge hunk of concentrated real estate created by the railway. It will take on a totally new meaning under conditions of very rapid movement. It will be an information megalopolis.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“The strong sunlight, the wind from the sea,
all the conditions of its existence,
may have flaked off the paint, if ever it was painted,
and made it homelier than it was.”
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)