HEAT WAVE

Hokitika Guardian, 17 March 1930, Page 3

HEAT WAVE

• . HOW SYDNEY SL'FFEItEIY A FEBRUARY R ECORD, . SYDNEY, February 27. It is impossible for New Zealanders wiio ’"nave never experienced a ■ beat Wave to realise how Sydney suffered last Saturday, when the thermometer soared to I(X> degrees—in the shade. L'he Dominion, with its line bracing climate, never approaches conditions wen resembling Sydney at its worst—and Sydney was at its worst on this memorable day. A shock awaited Sydney people as soon as they went outside for the first time aifter getting out of bed on. Saturday morning. They were met with a ilast of air that might , have passed dirough a heated oven. A hot, drying wind, it was. even then, with the sun" still low in the heavens. It was a wind that had come from the arid interior—--1 withering breeze that was stifling. ,lt was difficult to breathe. , One’s lungsseemed clogged. At that ''|arly hour it was but 92. Even before the sun rose t was 90. Once lie had got a taste if this wind the hardened Sydneyite snow what to expect, but few bargain’d for a rapid rise to 10G degrees—in he shade. Well, the. official weather people said he temperature was.lOG. That was at die bureau, on the harbour side in the •outre of a parls. Those who could read lie barometers n the city saw that hev registered, not .105, hut 110 and nr to 112 degrees. No wonder that hose ocople- who had to go to the city is usual were limp and gaunt as they j undo their way along the sun-soaked 1 ■ ; t v streets, There was'no escaping Vom a heat like this, and the marvel s not that 50 people collapsed, hut that Imusaml did not collapse. Thorn was not a cook spot to he had umvlmre. Those who decided earliest to to the benches in the hope of securng relief were sorry almost as soon

as they arrived at their favourite re-. sorts./’The sands blistered .. the feet i here was no place-where one could sit in .comfort. And the vast crowd made • matters so mucli worse, for there;werescrambles lor buses-and trams.- And \Vha-t ,'couhl be worse- than a- scramble during a heat wave ‘t- There -wore -so many people' in-the- matter—at least -15,000 bathed at Coogee during the afternoon—that it was- impossible to move about "in comfort'. Then, to save ones shoulders from blistering it- wasnecessary' to remain under the water practically the whole of the time. It is estimated that there were 120,000 people at Coogee during the afternoon, the great crowd being attracted by the fact that there is a shark-proof fence there. Sharks prefer to.come close in shore when the weather is' hot, and the surfers were not taking any risks. That is not to say that the other beaches were not patronised. Far from it. They had their thousands tonEvory beach was overcrowded. And what ill-natured crowds they were! But they "hud to be excused for that. Nobody could keepcalm and collected in Such circumstances. It was a day Sydney will never forget.