--Thanks to an entry on Wikipedia target="_blank" (yes, already!) there are already widely available facts related to the great heat wave, 2009, of southern Australia. The heat shattered many all-time and long-standing temperature records.

A want to focus upon the last blast of heat which burned its way through southeastern Australia last Saturday. It was on this day that Melbourne set its highest temperature on record--a fiery high of 46.2 degrees C, or 115.5 degrees F. It was on this day that northwesterly wind flow strengthened into a virtual blowtorch ahead of a cold front.

Northwesterly wind flow tapped the core of the hot pool that had lain over the inland south of Australia for nearly a fortnight. In Melbourne and much of southern Victoria, a southerly wind blows down hill and off the southwestern end of the Great Dividing Range. This down-cast wind behavior likely boosted the wind speed and helped to squeeze every last possible degree out of the thermometer. At the same time, dew point--and thus relative humidity--was driven lower.

At the time of highest temperature, winds at Melbourne gusted 40-50 mph (60-80 kmh) with relative humidity in the single digits (below 10%). Together with the 115-degree heat, this was the hellish setting that fanned many blazes into out-of-control killers. I am reminded that the native vegetation of Australia tends to be oily (as in "eucalyptus oil") and that green gum trees can be highly flammable under the right conditions.

At Avalon, southwest of Melbourne, the temperature soared to 47.9 degrees C, or 118.2 degrees F, to shatter not only the local all-time high temperature, but that for the whole state of Victoria. And the high was set amidst the same high wind and extreme low humidity as was felt in Melbourne.

The Wikipedia write-up states that the highest temperature reached during the heat wave was that of 48.2 degrees C, or 118.8 degrees F, at Kyancutta, South Australia. On Sunday, February 8, there was 48.1 degrees C at Port Augusta, South Australia.

As far as the Melbourne high, it set the record for highest temperature in an Australian state capital.

Another all-time high temperature was reached on February 7 at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales: 45.2 degrees C/113.4 degrees F. Meanwhile, the string of consecutive 40-degree days (in January) reached six--a record. And the number of 37.8-degree days (that would be 100 degrees F) reached 13 as of Sunday, February 8.

Near the water, the break from the heat, which followed a sharp cold front, was abrupt. At Melbourne, the high on Sunday was 21 degrees C/70 degrees F, or a 25-degree C dive within one day of the record hot Saturday.

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