Deadly extremes

The UK remains in the grip of bitterly cold weather. After a week of heavy snowfalls across the nation, more is forecast. Tonight the Met Office has issued weather warnings for the entire country (that's the wonderful orange colour you can see on the map above). In London we've been told to expect stormy rain and wind on Monday, turning to heavy snow overnight, followed by snow showers for most of Tuesday.

While London was spared the worst of the snow, enduring only a day of disruption last Monday, other part of the country haven't fared so well. Last night the mercury fell to -15 °C in Scotland, beating this winter's previous low of -13°C, recorded last month. On Friday, 200 people were rescued by emergency crews in Devon after spending hours stranded in their vehicles during heavy snow. As the bitter weather continues some councils are rapidly running out of road salt to grit the roads. A container ship with 40,000 tonnes of salt has been ordered from Spain and second from Germany. Both are scheduled to dock on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, southeastern Australia has been enduring a record-breaking heatwave. Melbourne saw the temperature hit a staggering 46.4 °C yesterday, while Adelaide hit 45.7 °C on January 28. In fact Adelaide experienced six straight days of temperatures above 40°C between January 27 and February 1. However, it was Mildura that's been suffering the most. It recorded twelve consecutive days over 40 °C. Even Tasmania was in on the act, reporting its highest ever temperature; 42.4 °C.

Sadly, we woke this morning to news of tragic bushfires that swept the rural fringes of Melbourne overnight. So far 108 deaths have been reported, a toll that's expected to rise, with at least 750 homes destroyed. Entire towns appear to have been wiped off the map in a matter of hours, making these the deadliest bushfires in Australian history.

Here in the UK the tragedy has dominated headlines throughout the day. No doubt it will also be the cover story of every morning newspaper. I can only imagine the rolling news coverage in Sydney. It's hard to grasp the deadly scale of Australia's continuing heatwave as we shiver in the midst of London's coldest winter for more than two decades. 2009 is set to be remembered as a year of extremes.

UPDATE: Monday 7.15am
Overnight the death toll for the Australian bushfires has risen to 131. The scale and horror of this event is difficult to comprehend.

UPDATE: Monday 11.15pm
The toll has reached 173 this evening, with reports that the final number is likely to exceed 200. Terribly sad news.

UPDATE: Tuesday 9.35pm
London didn't see much of a storm yesterday. We also had absolutely no snow last night. Since last week's single snow day the local weather forecast has been wrong every single day. It's almost as depressing as the weather itself.