Wimmera's week of heat

THE Wimmera has sizzled through this week's heatwave with maximum temperatures in the low to mid 40s prevalent throughout the district.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and yesterday all topped 40 in Horsham, Longerenong, Nhill, Edenhope and Kanagulk, and with 44 forecast for Horsham for today, highs for the entire week are set to top 40 degrees.

Horsham has sweated through the working week with temperatures of 41, 45, 42 and 43 degrees.

The highest reported temperature in the Wimmera throughout the week was 46 degrees at Longerenong the second hottest January day on record.

Weather observer Brett Allender said the hottest on record was 46.5 on January 31, 1968.

Minor rainfall accompanied Wednesday night's storms with the highest fall, 4.2mm, recorded at Stawell.

Elsewhere 'dry lightning', with rain evaporating before reaching the ground, was responsible for many fires throughout the region. Some continue to burn out of control.

Friday is set to be another scorcher with 44 degrees forecast for Horsham, Warracknabeal and Nhill, and 43 degrees forecast for Edenhope and Stawell.

Relief from the heat is on the way in the late afternoon, with a cool change expected to sweep through the region about 5pm.

The cool change will bring with it storm activity and winds, which will cause extreme fire danger.

Business

While no-one has welcomed this week's extreme heat, in some ways the scorching temperatures could not have come at a better time for some industry sectors.

Business Horsham chairwoman Andrea Cross said for some businesses, the heatwave had come at the same time as the usual post-Christmas lull.

"January is generally a quiet month after the Christmas rush," she said.

She said the heat had affected some retail businesses though, with many shoppers preferring to get the day's jobs done in the morning, making the hotter hours quiet.

"Some businesses are closing earlier than usual but it's not a significant impact because it's generally their quiet months.

"The food industry, everybody still needs to eat. There's still the tourist traffic that's coming through and they're a lot busier in the mornings than the afternoons."

Acting manager at Safeway Horsham Gary Ellis said business had been steady. He echoed Mrs Cross's sentiments about shoppers trying to avoid the hottest part of the day.

"We're busy still but the middle of the afternoon is too hot for anyone to shop," he said.

The hot weather has caused a rush on purchases designed to cool people down. Mr Ellis said some departments were struggling to keep up with demand.

"We sold out of watermelon halfway through the day," he said.

"You can't keep up with the demand on ice-creams."

Leisure

HORSHAM Aquatic Centre has been the destination of choice for many during this week’s heatwave, with huge numbers of people flocking to the YMCA. 

Centre manager Steve Clark said he was delighted to see so many people opting for the safest way to take a dip.

“The pleasing thing for me is that they’ve chosen to come to a safe, patrolled place to swim,” he said.

“The other pleasing thing is, I would say 50 per cent are families.” 

After comparing monthly attendance statistics from last year to this year, Mr Clark said there was nothing remarkable, given average temperatures for this month were five degrees lower than last year.

But it was an analysis of this scorching week that piqued his interest. 

“In the current heatwave, the average temperature has been 38, whereas last year the average was 30 and as a result we’ve had two and a half times the number of swimmers,” he said. 

The centre had considered extending opening hours but Mr Clark said people had generally gone home by close in the evening.

“We extended additional hours on Friday and Saturday and we’ve had the opportunity this week to open later, but people disperse after tea time,” he said.

Mr Clark said it was important that people continued to choose the safest way to swim for the remainder of the summer.

Hospitals 

WIMMERA hospitals near the region’s fires adapted to fire and heat-related emergencies this week.

Rural Northwest Health was on alert late yesterday.

Chief executive Catherine Morley said there had yet to be any heat-related admissions.

“But an elderly woman involved in a house fire was admitted at Warracknabeal on Tuesday night,” she said.

The woman sustained minor injuries.

“She did not have any burns or smoke inhalation,” Ms Morley said.

The woman was discharged on Wednesday morning.

A CFA spokeswoman said the house was well alight when fire-fighters arrived at 3.47pm on Tuesday, but could not confirm whether it was destroyed.

Some Rural Northwest Health staff have been unable to attend work because of fires near their homes.

“We are coping with it and supporting them in this difficult time,” Ms Morley said.

Rural Northwest Health’s Warracknabeal and Hopetoun campuses are emergency refuges, but Ms Morley said staff discouraged people from any unnecessary travel.

She took the advice herself, sending an apology to a scheduled meeting at Stawell yesterday.

“It was not appropriate to go,” she said.

CFA Watch and Act notices were active in Warracknabeal and Hopetoun districts at 5.45pm on Thursday.

West Wimmera Health Service cancelled some of its allied health appointments. 

Acting chief executive Ritchie Dodds said the service banned all non-essential staff travel between its sites until the end of the week.

“We consider the potential risk to staff and clients to be sufficient to outweigh any inconvenience caused in the short term,” he said.

Mr Dodds said resources were stretched at Rainbow, where the town’s hospital had been helping cater for fire-fighters battling the Yaapeet fire.

Extra workers were called on as required, and Mr Dodds said he was keeping a close eye on the CFA’s warnings.

“We’ve tested our back-up systems, and we’re as confident as we can be that we will still be able to adequately respond to any loss of essential services such as power and water, which might arise,” he said.

“We’ve had four heat-related admissions since Monday – all elderly patients – which were related to dehydration.”

All but one were admitted to Nhill Hospital.

Wimmera Health Care Group chief executive Chris Scott said several tradies had been treated for dehydration since Monday.

But aside from firing up its generators during Tuesday’s blackout, the health service was relatively unaffected.

He suggested families check in on any elderly relatives.

Councils

COUNCILS across the Wimmera are checking on the welfare of people most in need during the heatwave. 

West Wimmera Shire corporate and community manager Venkat Peteti encouraged people to avoid travel in the hot conditions.

“We’re saying if you don’t need to travel, don’t travel – stay indoors,” he said.

Mr Peteti said the shire’s meals-on-wheels clients had received extra provisions to keep them safe through the week.

“We provide them with extra bottles of water and advise them to stay hydrated and we constantly keep an eye on the effects of the heat,” he said.

West Wimmera Health Service told staff not to attend any appointments outside the service’s Nhill base.

Yarriambiack Shire Council co-ordinator of age and disability Lisa Dunkley said checks ensured people were taking the right precautions to survive the heat.

“Generally we do welfare checks on all our clients, making sure they have the cooling on, blinds down and access to water,” she said.

“They’re mostly elderly clients, so we make sure that happens once a day.”

Ms Dunkley said there had been no reports of anyone suffering from health problems but staff were bracing themselves for today’s dangerous conditions.

“Everything’s good so far; I think Friday’s probably going be a pretty scary day,” she said.

Horsham Mayor David Grimble said the council heat plan had swung into action.

“Council has implemented our heatwave plan, which includes advice to the agencies listed in the plan,” he said.

The council had rescheduled appointments with medical staff and maintained extra contact with people registered with them.