Tree near Sydney, decorated with fire

Part of this story: NSW bushfires join together as homes destroyed and man missing

Not a good Christmas for a lot of people.

Is the smoke bad where you live Les?

At times it's like a thin fog, at other times it's hazy if you look at the sky.
Several times I've seen the sun as a small red ball. I got a photo on the phone, but it's a bit small.

But breathing is a different matter.
Not bad at the moment, more noticeable in the house than outside, but other times it's been hard.

I'm just south of the Parramatta river, about a quarter of the way from the coast to the edge of the blue mountains.
Still close enough to the coast to get sea breezes, unlike further out, where there's little except for southerlys.
Had one of those go through late yesterday afternoon, about 5pm here. It was supposed to continue all the way up to the Queensland border, eventually.
That cooled things down from the high 30s to high 20s here. :)
But made the fires a lot worse. :(

After living close to fire zones in the western Rocky Mountains I know that very few things jump start the imagination like watching flames from a valley fire crest a ridge in the evening breeze. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

And now we have flooding rains right along the east coast of Australia.
My gauge says that I'm getting about 2 inches a day.

South Coast's Currowan bushfire extinguished as torrential rain falls across NSW

I blame Lord Lundy.

Thanks. I haven't heard that poem before, but it does seem to fit. :)

10.30PM, and the rain has stopped. It sounds so quiet.
The rain radar shows we're in a small clear pocket, with more to come.

Rain so far for today: 136.4 mm, which is about 5 1/3 inches.
It's been heavy south of Sydney too, which should add a fair bit to all of the dams supplying Sydney .

Meanwhile, here I have been out to tether down the tallest of my beehives before the wind peaks in about an hour's time.

It’s like you lived in Southern California were brushfire season is followed by rain and mudslide season.

---