Four Seasons
The weather blows hot, cold, and ever more extreme.
Four seasons in one day
Lying in the depths of your imagination
Worlds above and worlds below
The sun shines on the black clouds hanging over the domain
Songwriters: Neil Finn / Tim Finn.
Many of us across Aotearoa, and a few Aussies too, I’m sure, have a particular domain in mind when they hear that song. To me, it’s the one in Auckland, the museum, the cooling fountains and birds, the steamy exotica of the Wintergardens, and the most magical tree outside an Enid Blyton tale, though it could be anywhere.
Maybe Auckland is what I think of for the line about the seasons in one day, given our notoriously changeable weather? Still, the on-again, off-again rain in Tamaki Makaurau is small bikkies compared with what we’re seeing elsewhere.
Frying in the north.
The weather in some places right now is a damn site more serious than a surprising downburst on a sunny day. We are reaching climate extremes that are bordering on the point where human life is no longer supported and will increasingly impact our economy and food production.
Over the past week, there have been record temperatures across Europe, affecting businesses and schools and leading to deaths among those who could not cope with the heat.
In France, four toddlers have died, and 55 people have drowned while seeking refuge from the heat.
Paris hit a June record of 40.9°C on Wednesday. The head of the Association of French Emergency Doctors said there had been 55 deaths in emergency health services in Paris in 24 hours. “Fifty-five is enormous,” Patrick Pelloux told Reuters. “Normally it’s three or four over 24 hours.”
In parts of Spain, the nighttime temperature was still above 30°C, offering no reprieve from the daytime heat.
