Sticks and stones

Petrified wood is an amazing phenomenon. It’s the fossilized remains of ancient trees that retain the shape and texture of real wood despite being made entirely of stone. It’s created when the tree’s organic material is replaced over thousands of years by minerals, often quart and other silicates. The word petrified comes from the Greek root petro meaning "rock" or "stone"; literally "wood turned into stone".

Conditions have to be just right for petrifaction to occur. The wood must first be buried by sediment that inhibits aerobic decomposition. Mineral-laden water must then flow through the sediment depositing minerals in the tree’s cells as passes, forming a permanent stone mould. Erosion of the surrounding sediment then exposes the rock logs for all to see.

I remember learning about petrified wood at school. At the time my Science textbook included fascinating images of the Petrified Forest in Eastern Arizona. I was totally captivated by the concept of logs made from stone and longed to see them for myself. My childhood dream came true this week after Garry and I spent a day driving through the Petrified Forest National Park.

First designated as a national monument in 1906, the 94,000-acre park is scattered with fossilized vegetation dating from 225 million years ago. Petrified logs are literally lying everywhere you look. They’re a fascinating shade of red, often lying in jumbled line of truncated segments. Up close each log really does look like a tree trunk. The trunk’s rough, crevassed bark surface is clearly visible, occasionally broken by classic branch knots. It cross-section reveals hundreds of narrow growth rings, each preserved by colourful minerals. It’s amazing to see.

Despite the heat, we ventured out to explore several walking tracks that took visitors passed the park’s best preserved logs. Some were more than ten metres long, others were as wide as we were tall. Interestingly, every log was always found in short sections. We discovered the reason for these segments on one of our walks. Basically, the hard mineral logs are buried in layers of comparatively soft sedimentary sandstone. Over time these sediments erode. Flash floods form deep crevasses in the soft rock, occasionally exposing the end of a log. These exposed ends eventually collapse under their own weight. A new length of log is then exposed and the process repeats until the entire log has been excavated from the ground.

The process of erosion has resulted in some incredible sights. At one location we saw exposed logs resting precariously on the crest of narrow ridges, tens of metres above the surrounding valley. Elsewhere the erosion has simply exposed colourful layers of sediment that ring the hills for miles around. In fact, just a few miles north lies the equally spectacular Painted Desert.

You reach it by crossing over Interstate 40. This highway bisects the entire state of Arizona. It replaced the famous two-lane highway, Route 66, became immortalized in American pop culture. Today, the road that once passed through the park is gone. However, its route is still traced across the desert by a decaying row of old wooden telegraph poles. They’re a haunted memorial of another, more simple time. The route is more formally memorialized by a rusting old car mounted in stone on the park roadside.

I was rather disappointed by the Painted Desert. Prior to our visit I’d seen images of a dry, red and eroded valley floor. The undulating, multilayer rock formations looked stunning. However, our visit came at the tail end of weeks of heavy rain. As a result the entire desert floor was awash with grass and plant life. Instead of seeing classic images of a harsh baren desert we encountered something that looked remarkably like a local sheep farmer’s paddock.  As a result, I've enhanced colours in the images posted here to bring the spectacle to life.

The entire experience was made all the more amusing by Garry’s constant comments about the amazing desert colours. I simply couldn’t understand why Garry thought such grey and green landscape was so spectacular. It wasn’t until we were leaving our final outlook stop that we suddenly realized his polarized sunglasses had helpfully tinting the entire scene a vivid, desert red. I tried them on and instantly entire desertscape was transformed. We both had a chuckle at the misunderstanding that had dominated our afternoon. Judge the differnce for youself below..

Expanded VLA

Almost any science fiction fan can identify an image of the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope. This impressive collection of 27 mobile antennas was the opening backdrop for "Contact", a screen adaptation of Carl Sagan's popular novel, starring Jodi Foster. In the movie, Jodie's character detects the first signals from an alien species while relaxing in the shadow of the array.

The VLA sits on the Plains of San Agustin, a desolate plateau in western New Mexico, more than 50 miles from the nearest city. They make for a spectacular scene as you crest hills circling the plateau. Each of the telescope's white dish antenna measure 25 metres is diameter and weighs a hefty 230 tons. They ride on railway tracks that enable them to fan out along a Y-shape configuration up to 37kms apart. Two of the three rail arms even extend across local highways.

The complex was originally authorized by the US congress in 1972. It officially opened in 1980 after more than 16 years of steady construction. The US National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), a joint venture between the nation's universities and the National Science Foundation, maintains the facility and controls its use.

In 2001 the NRAO began work on the US$98 million Expanded VLA (or EVLA) project. The project, due for completion next year, is an extensive technology upgrade designed to make the telescope ten times more sensitive to faint radio frequencies. Its 1970's-vintage electronics, analogue data tranmission systems and computing technoology are being replaced by modern optical fibre technology and a new, powerful supercomputing able to process in an hour the same volume of data collected by the VLA during its first thirty years of service.

Garry and I visited the EVLA today enroute to Arizona. We couldn't have picked a better day to visit. The array is currently being transitioned from its most compact formation. This meant we could see all 27 antennas in close proximity and watch its special red transporter unit carefully relocate the gleaming white dishes. Visitors are enable to take a self-guided walk around the facility including a close-up look at one of the active dishes. We were also lucky enough to see a dish ungoing repair in the facilities giant covered workshed.

Room enough to swing a cat

Where do you go when you need to test a missile?  White Sands Missile Range of course.  This restricted area stretches more than 50 miles along the edge of the Organ Mountains.  Almost every missile in the US military arsenal was tested here at some point.  More than 65 years after opening, missile testing continues on the range today.  Each test closes the State Highway 70 that crosses the range, often for hours at a time.

Some of the range's earliest test subjects are currently on display in a spectacular missile park.  The park and accompanying museum sit on the edge of a secure military facility.  Visitors are required to park their car outside the perimeter fence and walk through a secure checkpoint.  As you cross you're warned not to take photographs beyond the boundary of the missile park, with your camera always facing west.

It seemed somewhat ironic that we could wander unfettered between dozens of missiles on display, taking photos at will while the latest nuclear delivery system was being tested nearby.  However, Garry and I both noted that almost every missile in park was first tested at least three decades ago.  The latest technology was clearly not on display.

The park is also home to one of the world's best preserved German V2 rockets.  More than 200 of them were shipped to White Sands at the end of WWII as America sought to master this new technology.  The V2 currently on display has been carefully cut open to reveal its interior. The engineering was fascinating.  It was clear the Germans were far ahead of the times, even more so given that Robert Goddard had only launched the world's first successful liquid fuel rocket less than 25 years earlier.

New Mexico is the perfect place to test a missile.  The state is vast and empty. In the last two days we've driven hundreds of kilometres, soaking up views of an arid, empty landscape.  As you can from the photo above, at times the road seemed to stretch forever. 

The area's harsh climate was also bought into stark relief when we visited Elephant Butte Lake.  This is a man made body of water formed when the Rio Grande was dammed in 1916.  Currently, its almost empty with a series of prominent mineral deposits ringing the lake edge more than 25 metres above the current water line.

It was here that we also stopped for the night.  We stayed at the Sierra Grande Lodge & Spa, a restored hotel in the nearby town of Truth or Consequences.  The hotel sits atop a natural mineral hot spring.  As guests we were invited to enjoy a complimentary soak, before enjoying a refreshing massage. Ahhhh. Relaxing!

A view that's out of this world

 

We've just completed Day Two of our grand road trip. The last couple of days have been an entertaining blend of space science and natural wonders. Here's a few brief highlights.

Yesterday began with a visit to the International UFO Museum & Research Centre in Roswell. This walls of of this cavernous building contains a series of simple displays capturing original photographs and eye witness accounts of the 1947 Roswell Incident. Sadly the exhibit lacked a cohesive flow. As a result much of the drama surrounding this controversial event was lost.

Our second tourist stop, the Roswell Museum & Art Centre, was a little more rewarding. Among its exhibits is a reconstruction of the lab operated by Dr Robert Goddard, the man who build the world’s first liquid fuel rocket. The lab is filled with his original tools and machinery, donated by his wife when she died in 1982. The museum also displays a variety of Goddard's early rocketry artefacts, including some of his earliest pioneering efforts.

We then headed west to Alamogordo, stopping briefly to take in the historic streetscape of Lincoln, where the outlaw Billy the Kid kicked off his criminal exploits. Our bed for the night was at the White Sands Motel, a classic, family-owned roadside motel. The original architecture and illuminated billboard sign have been lovely preserved, while each room's interior has been meticulously restore.

We spent today touring the New Mexico Museum of Space History and the spectacular white dunes that give White Sands its name. The Space History Museum sits on a hill overlooking the town. Many of its exhibits are devoted to the missile and rocket research conducted in the area. Highlights include a rocket sled used to test human tolerance for rapid deceleration and the Big Joe rocket, which tested the Apollo’s command module’s emergency escape rocket. I was also reminded that the Space Shuttle landed near here once, just once, in 1982 when alternative landing sites were plagued by poor weather.

We then drove out to the White Sands National Monument. National Parks in the USA are often called monuments. The area’s famous white sand consists of chalky, powered gypsum, a rare form of sand. Gypsum dissolves readily in water and thus rarely survives long enough to form giant rolling dunes.

A 16-mile scenic road loops through the dunes, offering one stunning vista after another. We stopped several times to trek climb the dunes and admire the scene around us. The park also offers a couple of educational walks, each signposted with a series of information panels.

The adventure begins

We've arrived safely in Roswell, New Mexico. Our long-haul flight from Sydney to Dallas passed without incident, landing almost 20 minutes ahead of schedule. This allowed us to make a leisurely transfer to our onward flight into Roswell.

Arriving at Roswell was quite spectacular. The airport includes an expanding "airplane graveyard" where retired commercial aircraft are parked when they're taken out of service. Several hundred aircraft of all sizes from 747s to small commuter jets stand glinting in the afternoon sun. Our plane taxied past every single one of them on it's way to the tiny terminal building where another dozen 747s sat dormant.

Roswell has two claims to fame. Ten miles north of town rumour has it that a UFO crash-landed here more than 60 years ago. While the crash has long been attributed to debris from a weather balloon, conspiracy theorists continue to claim alien bodies were recovered from the wreckage of an intergalactic spacecraft. No doubt we'll learn more tomorrow when we visit the International UFO Research Museum in the centre of town.

Roswell is also home to Dr Robert Goddard, the man who invented liquid propulsion rocketry. He experimented on a series of ever larger and more sophisticated rockets on the outskirts of town for more than thirty years. Every modern rocket, from Apollo's Saturn V to the recently retired Space Shuttle main engines, can trace its origins back to his pioneering work.

Today a statue of Goddard stands proudly on the main street looking up at one of his carefully preserved launch towers. Earlier this evening we stopped briefly to pay homage to his bronze edifice while returning from dinner. I swear it's a coincidence that our hotel is located just across the street.

• Posted from my iPhone
• Location: W Country Club Rd,Roswell,United States

UPDATE:
You follow our travel adventures in New Mexico and Arizona starting with this post. Click through our journey as it unfolded by selecting the New Post link at the bottom of each post.

Counting down the days

We're making final preparations for our road trip through New Mexico and Arizona.  We fly out for Dallas on Saturday morning.  Stay tuned for dozens of images and adventures in the weeks ahead.

Party in the house tonight

It's been a while between posts. I guess you could say it's a sign of the times as our lives return to normal in Australia. I've also been unable to share news of efforts that have taken up much of our time in recent weeks; for good reason. Garry and I have been focused on preparations for a surprise party celebrating his father's 70th birthday. Last Saturday we hosted 19 people for dinner in our apartment; seating everyone at a five-metre long dining table.

It took weeks to prepare the table alone. We we had to create custom joinery to link our existing dining table and outdoor tables, source matching linen for an extended table setting and create appropriately themed table displays. Highlights included helium balloon sculptures at either end of the table, two golden "70" numeral stands we created from cardboard craft pieces and a forest of matching glassware. We even found a store selling quality cotton napkins manufactured in handy dispensing rolls. Should the mood grab us we now have everything we'll ever need to recreate a five-metre banquet table in future.

However our efforts weren't in vain. The final result looked spectacular. Unfortunately in our haste to get ready for our guest's arrival on Saturday we forgot to take any photos. Several guests did so I'm sure we'll have images to share in due course. The evening went well and the praise from those present has been flattering.

Everyone enjoyed the food, the company and the celebration theme we'd created. Garry ordered a special "70" shaped cake and luxurious mini-desserts from a local patisserie, while I'd bought crusty artisan bread and a selection of French champagne. Dinner included a groaning cheese board, super fresh produce from the Sydney Fish Markets, a variety of spectacular salads and a couple of tasty roasts. However the highlight of the night seemed to be our choice of wine. The Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc kept disappearing as swiftly as the ice bucket was filled.

Happy 70th Murray!

Our polar neighbours

Having regularly critiqued English weather in rather unsavory terms, it’s been fascinating to watch a “once in a generation” weather event unfold in New Zealand. The entire nation has been smothered by frigid polar air sweeping in from Antarctica. On Monday snow fell briefly in downtown Auckland, something last witnessed in 1939.

Weather historians say that the 1939 event dropped 5cm of snow on top of Mt Eden. Snow also fell in suburbs like Ponsonby, Remuera. In 1939 it also snowed at the lighthouse at the very top end of the North Island. There was also three hours of snow in Gisborne, while Banks Peninsula and Otago witnessed snow drifts up to 10 metres deep.

On this occasion snow didn’t settle in Auckland. However, the city did record its coldest temperature ever yesterday; a chilly 8.2°C. Snow also fell for two days in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. Even the hills around Whangarei in Northland got a dusting. It also came as no surprise to read that a record load was recorded across the national power grid yesterday. Demand peaked at 7098MW shortly after 7.30am; the nation’s third such record in less than a month. It’s clearly been a very cold winter in New Zealand.

New Zealand’s weather was definitely a factor that encouraged me to migrate as an adult. I felt the cold every winter and hated every moment of it. Throughout my entire childhood I wore a winter uniform consisting of shorts and socks held up by garters. This meant that I'd find myself walking to school in the midst of winter across playing fields covered in thick, crunchy frost.

I also recall school being cancelled when more than an inch of snow fell in Dunedin. It only happened once, in 1973, but my brothers and I enjoyed a day building snowmen on the front lawn. My artwork melted overnight. However, my brother Hamish packed his snow so firmly it took almost a week for his iceman to disappear. Of course he now lives in Austria and enjoys permanent snow cover for almost six months of the year.

Meanwhile, Sydney was blessed with bursts of sunshine and afternoon high of 18°C last weekend.  However, our overnight temperature is forecast to drop to 8°C by Friday.  Maybe London weather wasn't all that bad.

PHOTO SOURCE: NZ Herald, August 17, 2011

Where to next?

This wouldn't be The Swiss Cottage blog without a few travel adventures on the calendar. Never fear; we have quite a few adventures in the works.  Next month Garry and I will be off for a two week road trip through New Mexico and Arizona. We fly into Dallas, non-stop from Sydney, where we then catch a commuter flight to Roswell, New Mexico.  From here we collect a rental car and spend ten days exploring a plethora of space, astronomy and science fiction destinations.  Of course, Roswell kicks off the road trip with its infamous UFO research museum. However, the town was also home to Robert Goddard, the father of modern rocket science. Many of his early experimental rockets are on display in the town's museum.

We then drive west to Alamagordo, home of the New Mexico Museum of Space History and on to White Sands, where the White Sands Missile Range Museum. This part of our journey will take at least two days. We'll then turn north and drive past Spaceport America, a new private space tourism complex that will become home to Virgin Galactic some time next year. Our next stop will be the Very Large Array, an impressive complex of radio telescopes stretching miles across the desert. The site featured in the opening credits of the 1997 science fiction movie, Contact, starring Jodie Foster.

Our itinerary will then focus on a host of natural phenonmeon in central Arizona including the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest and Meteor Crater, one the world's most widely recognised meteorite impact sites.  From here we'll head south to Tucson where more space and science sights await.  Our first stop in Tucson is the Titan Missile Museum where a former Cold War nuclear weapon remains on display in deep, blast protected silo.  We'll also be visiting the city's famous airplane graveyard where thousands of decommissioned US airforce aircraft are stored at the end of their useful life.  I'm also keen to visit Biosphere 2 where an unsuccessful experiment in closed-cycle ecosystem ran for several years.

We'll then head south again to the wild west town of Tombstone.  This is your classic frontier town of the Western movie genre. Here we'll celebrate my birthday with a visit to the world renown OK Corral, once home to outlaw, Billy the Kid. The final stop on our tour is Los Angeles.  I've been here several times before (see the photos above taken from Griffith Observatory in December 2009).  However, Garry's barely left the airport and so he's keen to experience the city's famous sights and sounds.  I've mapped out a three-day itinerary that will take us to Hollywood, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills among other attractions.

Then, barely a week after we return to Australia, I'll be off again for a business trip that takes in Hong Kong, London and Madrid.  While in the UK I'm hoping to take a weekend excursion up to Northern Wales.  Several years ago I mapped out a road trip for Garry and I to Telford and Llangollen.  Why here?  Telford is the gateway to Ironbridge, home of the world's first metal bridge; while Llangollen is famous for the magnificant  Pontcysyllte Aqueduct built by Thomas Telford between 1795 and 1805.  This waterway, rising 38 metres above the valley floor, carries canal boats across the Dee River in Wales. The town also has a wonderful steam railway that follows the Dee upstream for several scenic miles.

Finally, there's the Christmas/New Year period.  We've had numerous debates about what we should do.  We've already debated taking a road trips to Tasmania or through the southern half of New Zealand's North Island.  However, we've yet to finalise our plans.  Of course we may simply stay home as we'll be off to port Douglas in early-April next year for a family wedding.  Garry's already talking about hiring a four-wheel drive and making our way to Cape York.  It seems there are no end of holiday destinations still to be experienced.

Health care; up close and personal

It’s been my turn in hospital this week. I went into surgery on Tuesday afternoon for a submucous resection septopasty, turbinectomy and concha bullosa resection; or as some would say, I’ve had a nose job. Over the last few years my nose has become progressively blocked by swollen nasal membranes and a deviated septum (the piece of cartilage that separates your nostrils). The condition was seriously aggrevated by chronic hayfever I suffered annually in London. In more rece3nt years things had reached a point where was breathing from one nostril during the day, then snoring loudly all night.

In case you’re wondering, a submucous resection is an operation where they separate the mucus lining in your nostril from the underlying cartilage. The cartilage is then reshaped and the lining restitched. A turbinectomy involves reducing the size of three internal nodules, or turbinates, that line the nasal passage. The last bit of surgery had every nurse completely stumped. A concha bullosa is an air cavity that often develops inside one or more turbinates. These can swell over time, blocking the nasal passage. The surgery took just over an hour and all seems to be healing well.

This was my first time under general anesthetic. Despite my apprehension, the experience wasn’t particularly unpleasant. In fact, I find it rather fascinating to awake in a brightly lit room surrounded by fancy machines and attentive nurses. I cannot recall being so pampered and fussed over for a long time. Nor were they the least bit bothered that I had a large blood splattered tampon-like bandage strapped under my nose.  If I'm honest, the entire experience of being in hospital gave me a fascinating insight into the world of modern medicine.

Perhaps the most surprising observation was the number of people I dealt with during my brief 20 hours as a patient. Each had a distinct role, performed professionally and efficiently. Before surgery I met at least seven people including my doctor and anesthetist. Six separate people attended to me in my first hours after surgery, then the following morning another six people visited me in quick succession bringing newspapers, breakfast and paperwork to sign. In all I counted at least 19 different people who came to my bedside at various times.

I had no idea so many people were involved in the running a hospital from administrators and cleaners, to doctors and nurses. The volume and variety of roles I encountered was fascinating. All were polite, caring and consistently put me at ease. I’ll never fear going into hospital again. However, the bills now arriving in my letter box are a shock to the system.  It seems that such attentive care comes at a cost.  I'm left pondering how to reduce headcounts and thus the spiraling cost of health care without sacrificing its quality.

Innsbruck

Since 1990 I’ve passed through the city of Innsbruck in Austria at least three times. On each occasion I’ve been in transit by train and have never left the station. Innsbruck is located in the Inn Valley, a broad valley that takes traveler north to the Brenner Pass, one the Alp’s main gateways to Italy; or west across the Arlberg Pass into Switzerland. Both are spectacular journeys through truly stunning, snow-clad alpine landscapes. Given its mountainous location, the city has twice host the Winter Olympics; first in 1964 and again in 1976.

Last weekend, my brother Hamish took the entire family for a day trip to Innsbruck. Our one hour journey proved the ultimate test of his family-sized people wagon. We successfully crammed seven of us into the vehicle; Hamish and my sister-in-law; their two children, my parents and I. Our itinerary for the day saw us experience three of the city’s most popular sights; the Bergiselschanze (Olympic Ski Jump), the Innsbruck Riesenrundgemalde (a giant panoramic painting) and the famous Golden Roof, located in the centre of the old city.

The Bergiselschanze is hard to miss. It sits on a low hill overlooking the city. The hill, called Bergisel, was once the site of four battles fought between the forces of Napoleon and the Kingdom of Bavaria against local Tyrolean militiamen in 1809. Today a soaring ski jump dominates its crown. The jump rises 50 metres above the surrounding area. A short elevator ride takes you up to an observation platform offering an uninterrupted view across Innsbruck and the surrounding valley.

The jump track itself runs 98 metres down a 35 degree incline. Jumpers reach more than 98 kmph by the time they’re launched into the air. Ironically, the view directly ahead takes in the cluttered graveyard of Stiftskirche, an ornate 17th Century church on the edge of town. I’m sure more than one jumper has lost their nerve thanks to such a sobering sight.

Nearby is the recently constructed Riesenrundgemalde building. Inside is an impressive life-sized panorama painting of the final battle of Bergisel. The giant 1000 square metre canvas took Munich artist Michael Zeno Diemer three months to complete in the early 20th Century. The completed artwork is impressive. It’s incredibly life-like, bringing the tragedy and triumph of war into stark relief. For most of its life the painting was housed in an aging rotunda on the banks of the Inn River. A delicate and controversial relocation to Bergisel was completed in 2009.

After lunch our final destination for the day involved a leisurely stroll through the heart of the old city. Our route inevitably led us to the Goldenes Dachl, or Golden Roof, a famous local landmark. This an ornate three-story balcony capped by a dazzling gilded copper tiles. It was built in 1500 for Maximilian the First, the regining Holy Roman Emperorn as a royal box from which he could sit in state and enjoy tournaments in the town square below.

Five days of sunshine!

The last few weeks have been an extra-ordinary period for weather in Sydney. While I was travelling for business Garry says we had a week of extremely heavy rain. The downpour was the perfect test for leaks repairs recently completed on our apartment. The repairs have passed with flying colours. We’ve had no repeat of leaks we've typically experienced during previous episodes of heavy rain.

The wet weather has subsequently been replaced by a blast of warm, sunny conditions that have left Sydney basking in the warmest end to the month of July for six years. Temperatures hit a minimum of 20°C over the last four days. Tonight the forecast is for the sunshine and warm temperatures to continue until Friday. Today we enjoyed a high of 23°C, tomorrow is forecast to dip to 22°C before rising to a high of 24°C on Thursday. Other parts of Australia are also enjoying some of the warmest July weather for more than 100 years.

Did I mention that temperatures soared above 37°C for several days while I in New York?  I arrived in town at the perfect time.  For several days almost 50% of the US population found themselves sweltering under a heatwave advisory.  The heat in mid-town Manhattan was incredible.  Stepping outside was like walking into a giant sauna; with the heat just as oppressive in the shade.  Thank goodness I packed a few short sleeve shirts.

I’m sure regular readers will have noticed my often unhappy musing about the UK’s weather. Sydney’s current bout of winter sunshine has done little to dispel these memories. On several occasions last week temperatures in Sydney were warmer than those I was enjoying in London.  The forecast for London on Thursday is 22°C, two degrees cooler than Sydney.  Sadly, this constrast is isn't as unusual as it seems. 

Last week The Times newspaper noted that the last five years in the UK included some of the wettest July months on record. In particular, June 2007 was the wettest on record as was July 2009. In fairness, the article also noted that July 2006 was the hottest on record. Sadly, this abnormal July gave Garry and I a rather distorted sense of the UK’s regular weather pattern during our first six months in London.  The contrast did little to prepare us for the next four years.

UPDATE: August 2, 2011

I've just read that published weather forecasts celebrated their 150th anniversary yesterday.  According to the BBC on 1 August 1861 the Times newspaper published the world's forecast.

UPDATE: August 5, 2011

Today’s temperature reached 25 degrees today, seven above the average for August. It was also the ninth consecutive day of temperatures at 20 degrees or higher. Forecasters are predicting a top of 22 degrees tomorrow, equaling Sydney’s winter record of 10 consecutive days at this level.