I want to say thank you to those who have asked about my welfare and the Australian fires.
My family and I are fine - I live in inner Melbourne in Victoria (the southern end of Australia) and I am at least 200 km from the next severe fires (although there was a worrying grass fire which hit about 10 kms away, but was quickly contained). The worst of it is further north, in New South Wales, and in the eastern part of Victoria - the bushland and farmland coasts. We are a hot country and are used to fires, but we've never seen the magnitude of this, and this early in our summer season. We haven't had our usual extended hot spell yet (usually hits February), so the fear is that that worst is yet to come. Everything's just been so dry, so early, due to higher than normal temperatures over the years.
At least 13 million acres have burned or remain on fire (just for reference, the wildfires in California in 2018 was around 2 million acres): 24 people dead, 4,000+ livestock dead, countless animals and habitats gone. I was planning to take the kids out today but the smoke that has drifted over Melbourne is almost at hazardous levels so we've camped inside. This photo is at 2pm today from my backyard - that sky is not cloudy, that's smoke, coming from hundreds / thousands kms aways. And, as always when natural disasters hit, we've seen humbling bravery and generosity by people.