Forty Degrees!

Untouched photo of Sunrise

Forty Degrees

Too hot to think

Only want to drink

Ice-water

 

Too hot all day

Nothing left to say

Like I oughta

 

Meh! You can write the rest of the poem yourselves! Human body temperature is 37C. Anything above that and your brain ceases to function! It is 40C today.

Fires are raging uncontrolled across much of the Cape Peninsular. People have had to evacuate homes. And while it is usual to have mountain fires at this time of year, and even necessary for the propagation of certain plants, such as protea, we don’t usually get them down among the houses. It is desperately dry, and very hot, with a slight breeze.

You hear the helicopters flying endlessly, tirelessly, taking one massive “bucket” load of water after another, trying to quench the flames. They fly until the last possible moment at night, and begin again at first light. They hope that they will put the fire out today. Otherwise, a bit of rain is forecast for tomorrow. You can read a bit about it here if you like Cape Town fires rage through the night.

Meanwhile, for those of us out of harm’s way, we can enjoy the pretty skies of yellow light as the sun filters through all that smoke. This untouched photo is of a sunrise a few years ago, at just such a time of fires on the mountains as we have now.