Burning ‘Deep Purple’: Australia So Hot New Color Added to Index

Originally published by John Queally at Common Dreams

Deep purple… the Bureau of Meteorology’s interactive weather forecasting chart has added new colors. (Photo: Bureau of Meteorology)

Wild fires continue to rage across Australia Tuesday and temperatures have become so hot the country’s Bureau of Meteorology was forced to add a new color—deep purple—to show areas that have exceeded all-time heat records.

Previously the Bureau’s heat index was capped at 48°C (118.4°F), but now recorded temperatures of over 50°C (122°F) have pushed the limit of the scale to an unheard of 54°C, which is equivalent to 129°F.

“The scale has just been increased today and I would anticipate it is because the forecast coming from the bureau’s model is showing temperatures in excess of 50 degrees,” David Jones, head of the bureau’s climate monitoring and prediction unit, told reporters.

Indicating that the worst may yet to come, Jones added that, “The air mass over the inland is still heating up – it hasn’t peaked.”

Climate scientists in Australia—with Jones among them—say the fires and the heat are unprecedented in scale and intensity, but that Australians should understand the destructive temperatures and ensuing fires across Tasmania and southern sections of the country are the new normal of runaway climate change.

ALF Sets Fire to an Idaho Fur Store that sells Wild Coyote and Bobcat Furs

No one was injured in the early morning blaze at Rocky Mountain Fur & Fireworks, a retailer in Caldwell, Idaho, about 30 miles northwest of the state capital. The company sells wild coyote and bobcat pelts.

The North American Animal Liberation Press Office, which says it conveys messages for unnamed animal advocates, distributed a statement from a group calling itself the “arson unit” that said it set fire to a store stocked with “chemically treated skins of thousands of tortured animals”.

“By oppressing innocent life, you’ve lost your rights. We’ve come to take you down a notch. Stay in business and we’ll be back,” the unit said.

Investigators were taking the arson claim seriously, and it was one of several leads in the case, said Mark Leiser, assistant special agent in charge of the Seattle Field Division of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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