Canberra heat record

Another record high

Canberra heading for January heat record as storms spark fire fears

Canberra is sweltering through what could be its hottest January on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Canberra Times,

22 January, 2013

After hitting a record high of 42 degrees last week, the month’s average could be pushed into the record books, meteorologist Rebecca Kamitakahara said.

“We are on track to exceed our January average for maximum temperatures, which is 28 degrees,” she said.

“Currently our average temperature is sitting in the low 30s, but that of course will be fully evaluated at the end of the month.”

The capital sweltered through its hottest January day on record last week, when the mercury reached 42 degrees on January 18. Ms Kamitakahara said that record was also the second hottest temperature on record, across all months, for Canberra - second only to a maximum of 42.2 degrees recorded on February 1, 1968.

The higher temperatures, coupled with a weak inland low pressure trough, have also caused some isolated thunderstorms throughout the capital region.

“There is another front expected to cross the state late Friday night or early Saturday morning,” Ms Kamitakahara said.

“There is the chance that we will see some increased shower and thunderstorm activity associated with this.”

The expected storms have put firefighters on watch for possible lightning strikes throughout the region.

The dry conditions mean storms can have dangerous consequences, NSW Rural Fire Service member Tim Carroll said.

“Any sort of lightning activity at this time of the year gets our attention,” he said.

“We certainly stay vigilant. Often the Rural Fire Service will arrange to fly an aircraft over those areas the next day to identify any ignitions that may have occurred.”

Mr Carroll said the recent fires throughout the Bungendore and wider Palerang region were started by lightning strikes.

“We had around 15 ignitions in the area directly attributable to lightning,” he said.

“When it occurs, it can be a significant thing.”

Isolated thunderstorms have been predicted for the remainder of the week.

Temperatures in the capital are expected to drop to 29 degrees on Wednesday, before climbing back up to low 30s for the remainder of the week.

Blackened survivor from Chadwick Downs' death valley

RED VALENTINO, through the miracle of artificial insemination, has thousands of his progeny in South Africa, North America, Nicaragua, Colombia, Paraguay … and beyond.

SMH,

21 January, 2013

Described as one of the most genetically influential bulls of his breed, Red Valentino is, in common parlance, a super stud, one of the most prized Red Brangus bulls in the country.

But he has been left with burns to 40 per cent of his body after the Coonabarabran bushfire which killed more than 100 cows and calves at Chadwick Downs Artificial Breeding Centre, one of only two in NSW licensed to export bull semen. Many of the dead cows were from the Valentino lineage.

The toll is expected to rise to closer to 200 cattle in coming days and weeks with the need to kill injured animals.

Stephen Lill, a former airline pilot, has built the business over 30 years with his wife, Elaine, and son, Martin.

The loss of 51 properties has been devastating but to tour their 5000-hectare spread, which sustained the heaviest loss of stock of any farm, reveals another cruel dimension of the bushfire. Half the property is burnt, there is nothing edible left and friends are giving them truckloads of hay to feed the remaining 2000 cattle.

Martin Lill, 38, who has hardly slept since the fire struck, surveys the bloated cattle which remain unburied as all labour is directed to fire fighting to prevent further losses.

''Welcome to the killing fields,'' he said.

''We are walking through the valley of death.''

He's not cracking a joke. It certainly feels like death with blackened trees and grass, smoke still heavy in the air and the stench of putrefaction. Wedge-tailed eagles will visit some of the corpses.

''This breaks my heart. I love these cows and I know every single one of them and I know their mothers.''

There are calves just two or three months old wandering around trying to work out why their mothers are not around to feed them any more.

The family have concerns about running a property adjacent to the Warrumbungle National Park where they believe lack of resources mean undergrowth, fuel for a fire, is not being cleared.

Stephen Lill said: ''We are not anti-national park but it is like living next to a gunpowder factory run by bureaucrats asleep at the wheel. We have known it was going to go up for some time.

''Anyone who lives next to a national park is going to see their insurance premiums go through the roof after this.''

He sent a round robin email to all the friends who have lent their support. It begins: ''Well it was drought for 18 years, then last year this time it was floods and now a fire storm.''

Red Valentino was found sheltering in the dry Castlereagh River with severe burns to his flanks and eyelids.

He is now indoors with an electric fan blowing cool air over his flanks and, always a good sign, is eating. He is also on antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs and his burns are sprayed regularly with aloe vera cream.

Across the shed in separate stalls are four young calves issuing plaintive cries. They are very happy to suck a finger.

They are the orphans of Coonabarabran.