Ugh. Perth summers make me seriously miss my home state of Colorado where it's currently a refreshing -2C.

Happy Australia Day ya'll. We'll be spending ours in front of the air conditioner, watching movies, praying that we don't have a power outage.

The silver lining? Limes are down from $30+ a kilo to $9.98, so I can afford to make lots of ice cold margaritas!

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"Perth has begun what is expected to be a record-breaking heatwave this week, while Western Australia's northwest prepares for a potential cyclone and thunderstorms.

The Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) is urging people to ensure they are ready for all types of weather this week.

Perth residents are expected to experience the city's hottest consecutive number of days of high temperatures since 1965, with the mercury forecast to hover around 40 degrees for the next seven days.

That includes Australia Day, which is expected to be 40 degrees.

Bureau of Meteorology manager of weather services Grahame Reader said extremely high temperatures and bad fire weather conditions were expected in the south.

In the north, a low is brewing and is likely to develop into a tropical cyclone mid-week and may affect the Pilbara, he said.

"Flooding is possible in the northwest as well as thunderstorms through most parts," Mr Reader said.

FESA acting chief operations officer Lloyd Bailey said people across the state needed to get ready, have a plan and remain vigilant.

"We want everyone to have a safe and enjoyable time over the Australia Day public holiday, but with bad weather forecast, you need to prepare your bushfire or cyclone survival plan, check for any alerts in your area and be aware of the fire danger ratings," he said.

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Happy Australia Day, Mel and everyone in Australia. Hope Perth isn't too unbearably hot for the rest of the week, and that the rains stop around Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Enjoy your margaritas, Mel. Never tried one, but if they have limes in them then I'm sure I would enjoy them. Dot

Hi, just saw your kangaroo photos, thanks for sharing, they are beautiful creatures. Haven't seen a kangaroo in the wild for a long time, not many around the 'burbs in Melbourne

We spent a Christmas week in Strasbourg one year where it was about -5 to -2 daytime temperatures. I swore I would never be that cold again. Brrr. We are off to your homestate, Colorado, for a month's holiday in June (also visiting bits of Utah, New Mexico and Arizona). Even though you're not enjoying the Perth summer much, it's something to store in your memory for later on, after you go home.

Take care
Kay

Wish I could send you some of our rain & cool weather, Mel.

I haven't had a Perth summer for a while, but well remember just praying for that Freo Doctor to blow in on sweltering, sticky days. And freezing my wotzits off in blustery St.George's Terrace in winter, too!

Fresh lime juice, simple syrup, tequila and ice, Dot, can't go wrong...a bit of triple sec for those who like it sweet - not me though, I'm all about the limes! I hand squeezed (squoze?) three kilos of limes yesterday and can barely move my hand today. Oh well, a small price to pay for a treat I've been waiting a long time for.

It did indeed reach 40C today. I'd heard predictions of 45C and was wondering if I went to sleep in Perth and woke up in Kuwait!

Funny thing about weather Kay, I've never been so hot indoors as I have in Perth. I reckon I can always put on more clothes if I'm cold, but when I'm starkers and still hot, well, that's a problem! MY wotzits miss the cold Bokhara!

Enjoy my home state - if you need any pointers, I'd be happy to help if I can.

Yes, Mel, saw that on news tonight - that's hot! Not that hot here in FNQ, around max 32C today and humid, but looks like monsoonal wet has started, so far only heavy rain at night, which is great, garden gets watered and we don't.

Bad news in SE Qld though and now northern NSW, more floods again!

That's the way it seems to work Pat, either feast or famine, seldom anything in between.

Try to keep dry.

Sympathy for you Mel. Hot in summer, cold, wet and windy in winter but Perth is still a lovely place if one has to live in a city.

Happy Australia Day all.

Wow - Mel that takes me back to when I grew up in Perth and we never ever had air conditioning and my parents never had it for the rest of their lives there.
They just closed up the solid brick house each day and opened up again when the sea breeze came in - hard to think about or understand now.
However - after 38+ years away from Perth I have never stopped missing the beaches there.

I do remember my brothers putting the water sprinkler on the roof when we lived in Kalgoorlie in an attempt to cool our house down!!

Been a lovely day here in Adelaide - only 31C at the moment - and this morning was cool and pleasant on the beach for an Australia Day ceremony - well - it was 23C.

Hope the wet weather eases for all those on the eastern seaboard.

Your family is much tougher than I am love_aus-travel. These brick houses are brick ovens in the summer and iceboxes in the winter. They don't insulate homes here, which has alwasy perplexed me.

I do love Perth winters though, even the St Georges Terrace wind tunnel, no complaints from me there.

Mmm - our house was double brick and rarely in my memory got warm on the inside.
We did live only about a mile from the ocean.
And in winter we only ever had a living room heater on of an evening - not so much tough as what we were used to.
We live in a similar house here in Adelaide - but I must say we now have reverse cycle air conditioning!

I moved from Perth to Hobart many years ago in January - and then I froze - and it was meant to be summer.

In winter we get by with an electric mattress pad on the bed. No heat. We just rug up...or go outside.

I remember some hot summers growing up in Colorado too. AC was unheard of. It gets cool at night there though, even in summer, so a simple attic fan and a few open windows is magic. Sleeping in a tent in the backyard works too.

Happy Australia Day!

I feel your pain Mel - I hope it lets up soon. Hard to know which is worse - your weather or ours here in SE Queensland.

Our usual Australia Day celebrations were cancelled as our Shack on the Tweed River at Murwillumbah was inundated. Well not the house it came up to the steps - so lucky - but trust me it's a long way from the river up the yard to the steps.

There were little rapids as it raced through the garage and across the road into the cane fields.

Anyway Mel - it's still pouring rain here but I hope it let's up on BOTH sides of the country either way.

I LOVE AUSTRALIA! - HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY AND ADVANCE AUSTRALIA FAIR!

I see that it is still hot over your way Mel. Hope you get that cooling shower this afternoon.

Sitting diagonally opposite you on the continent we are experiencing afternoon thunder storms at the moment but the real wet may start soon. The monsoon trough keeps moving south with no real structure and breaking up. Looks like this might continue too. Some are saying that it is unusually late but they have short memories. Last year it was more unusually early for set in rain than this year being unusually late.

Every now and then we think about AC but have not yet done anything about it. The dehumidifier keeps the office dry and it can be moved into other areas when their is too little air flow.

Hi Alan -

We had a nice break from the heat on Sunday and Monday, but it reared it's ugly head again yesterday, and today's forecast is for 38C. My poor dried out lawn would love some rain!

I have had the pleasure of re-visiting Perth several times over the last few years, and have found that, for whatever reason, "It's a different type of heat, over here"...whatever that means, but...

If you check weather details beforehand, in say..March, and the weather bureau tells us that it's going to be 29c in Perth, and it's currently 29c in Cairns, there really is no comparison. The 29c in both-cities is way out of whack.

For starters, you can pretty much assume Perth Weather Bureau people are still working on Fahrenheit standards. Last time I did a week there, and the weather hit 29c, it felt more like (a cold Cairns night) 18c.

Years ago, when I worked up in the north of W.A. during the original mining boom (we're talking the late 60's here), every time I headed south, to Perth, for a break, the temperature was mostly cardigan-minimum standard...but occasionally jacket-worthy...even in Summer.

Ever since then, despite the fact they appear to have some rather ambitious forecasters/weather records there, it is really never hot enough for FNQ residents to shuck down to shorts/t-shirts etc. if they are visiting our mates in the west. Be warned...It is a "different" type of "heat"...and methinks it's more closely aligned to the British standard, where anything over 20c is automatically granted a multiplication factor to suggest that is "really hot" and ergo; more tolerable to people from FNQ than it actually is.

Perhaps they (Perth-ites) have their thermometers stuck on top of some concrete monolith in the middle of the city, collecting fairly solid UV rays....whereas we have ours nailed to a palm tree, collecting sea breezes on the beach, and having the odd beer occasionally.

Either way....39c in Perth is not hot...34c in Cairns is...go figure.

It's called humidity.

Humidity keeps temps down. I'd rather it be 40C and dry than 32C and humid, because I just can't stand humidity.

But to say Perth isn't hot is just ridiculous. You should re-visit sometime, preferably in February. I'll bet you have a change of heart. It also gets humid here, but more often than not, it's a dry heat.

It was 92 F (34 C) in my lounge room on Friday and the AC (evaporative, which is a complete and utter joke and makes things worse by adding humidity) had been on all day - it felt like a freaking sauna. The outside air temp was 104F (40C). I suspect that's hot by anyone's standards.

I lived in the Middle East for eight years and in Indonesia for four. I know what dry hot and humid hot feels like. And Perth is no slouch when it comes to either.

Neither my spouse or I ever remember being so hot indoors as we are in Perth. Effective and efficient AC are hard to come by here for whatever reason.

Poor Mel, you sound pretty miserable. Something that might sound silly but really worked at the time, we were on a driving holiday years ago, before airconditioning in cars, and Mum and Dad stopped and put towels into a bucket of cold water, wrung them out slightly, then draped a cold wet towel over each of us in the car. Dad even put a wet dripping facewasher on top of his head.

We drove on, much cooler, looking ridiculous but we didn't give a hoot. Try it.

How much longer do you think you'll live in Perth? Sounds like your job or your husband's job has you moving about a bit. I think it's great you have the opportunity to do that.

Kay

Hi Kay -

Actually, it's quite nice today, and looks to be in the 32-34c range this week, which I can deal with no problem as long as it's dry! When I originally posted this it is was pretty darn miserable though. 42c isn't much fun.

My version of the cold wet towel trick is to wrap a flexbile ice pack in a dish towel and drape it around my neck or put it on my head when I sleep. It's a big help.

We're moving on to even hotter climes in a few months. I suspect my whinging about humidity and lousy AC will soon be a thing of the past. I'll be complaining about how unsafe it is to drive.

Let me guess. India?

Kay