Hot stuff!

Happy New Year from sunny Adelaide!
"Sunny", did I say? What I should have said was "swelteringly, baker's ovenly" Adelaide, because we're in the middle of the hottest hot spell we've had for yonks (as my son would say). I grew up in what was then a smallish country town, near Adelaide, and I remember we used to get a week or so of this heatwave stuff 60 years or so ago. But not for so long in and near the 40s (Celsius).
Not that this stuff really means much to me, pampered in my air-conditioned home and without any need to spend much time or effort outside.
The question (still) is "is this really Global Warming, or just part of the age-old cycle of weather, and our part in that?"
I have to admit that I've softened to believe that the new theories are probably right, in which case "Heaven help us all!" - because our governments aren't likely to do anything to save our kids and theirs before it's too late. But I hope I'm wrong.
Here in South Australia our main water supply (the Murray River) is so shrunken that we're all on quite severe water rations. After a year of rationing that's still all, except for feathery plans for a salinity plant.
We might as well all pray for rain, because no "earthly" prospects are on the way, and there's no expectation that our particular drought is near its end - even though our national tropics and Eastern zones are currently under monsoonal flooding.
NB: What a cheery way this has been for me to return to my blog, and to welcome you to 2008! Sorry about that.