Today has an ominous feel to it. It’s the second day of extreme heat here, and now there’s a howling gale.

The fire danger is described as catastrophic, and there’s just a hint of smoke on the breeze, which is probably coming from Cassilis/Dungog way. There’s a fire out there, which is burning with so much intensity, it’s showing on the weather radar.

Today’s weather has been compared to Black Saturday. Our firies are out and about making sure they can get to any fire as fast as possible. We received multiple text messages from the Rural Fire Service yesterday warning against the weather today. It’s a great system, and we’re very grateful for it.

Today’s sky fluctuates between bright blue, washed out hot, and overcast with a combination of haze and cloud. The wind feels like the blast from a hot oven, or perhaps what I’d imagine a blast furnace to feel like, the birds are panting, open-beaked in the heat, and in some cases, falling out of the sky. We’ve had day after day of heat, and summer seems to have gone on forever.

I’ve just checked the forecast, and although we’ll have a cool change tomorrow (hopefully), it’s forecast to be 37 degrees C again by Thursday. (That’s 100F for all you Fahrenheit users.)

In the meantime, we’re all sitting inside being thankful for the air-conditioning. The dogs are parked on the floor looking slightly worried, one cat is hanging around being paranoid, while the other one is chilled out on our bed (typical cats being contrary), and everyone is looking outside intermittently, in case of smoke.

We should be fine, as we’re in town, but we are opposite the local common. At this point, the wind should blow any fire up there in the opposite direction, but anything can happen on a day like today, so, as many Australians are doing today, we’re keeping our eyes out and our wits about us.

Hopefully, given all the precautions taken, everything will be all right today. Many thanks to all our firies. They do a remarkable job under dreadful circumstances.