Intense late-January heat across South Australia causes sunstroke, livestock deaths and water shortages
Date
26–30 January 1876
Summary / Overview
Intense heat affected Adelaide and several regional areas of South Australia in late January 1876, following an otherwise relatively cool summer. Contemporary reports described oppressive heat during both day and night, with Port Augusta reporting temperatures up to 102°F (38.9°C) in the shade and rarely below 80°F (26.7°C). The heat caused multiple cases of sunstroke, including a fatality at Port Pirie, while 135 sheep were reported to have died from sunstroke near Gawler Belt. Water supplies were also depleted at Port Pirie. The hot conditions aided harvesting in some agricultural districts, before cooler south to south-westerly winds brought relief around 30–31 January.
Meteorological data recorded at the time
Port Augusta: thermometer rarely below 80°F (26.7°C), with daytime temperatures up to 102°F (38.9°C) in the shade during an eight-day period ending around 1 Feb.
No other quantitative temperature measurements reported in these excerpts.
Historical descriptions / observations
Border Watch (Mount Gambier) Sat 29 Jan 1876: ‘The weather during the week has been all that the most ardent fire-eater could desire’.
South Australian Register (Adelaide) Sat 29 Jan 1876: ‘The weather during the greater part of the past month has been unseasonably cool, but there has just been nearly a week of great heat, which has proved favourable for harvesting’.
The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide) Sat 29 Jan 1876: ‘We are enduring a bout of very hot weather, which is felt rather seriously after the generally cool summer we have so far been favoured with.’
The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide) Mon 31 Jan 1876: ‘Port Pirie, January 29: The heat here is terrific today. Two men were sunstruck this morning’.
South Australian Register (Adelaide) Mon 31 Jan 1876: ‘The column of fashions for Port Adelaide last week would have been a dull affair, and if the weather continued, as hot as on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday there is no saying to what a limited state the garments worn would be reduced. The first day of heat saw the total abolition of black hats, and coats of similar character were condemned. Next morning there was another reduction, and some of the shipmasters showed great wisdom by coming out in light Indian suits, with puggaree, solar hat, and umbrella. Saturday was a shade warmer with a corresponding reduction in the under robe, and a true-born American skipper appeared as a juror at an inquest without coat, vest, or neck tie. Fashionable papers could easily describe the costume as admirably suited to the climate, because merely consisting of shirt, pants, hat, and shoes’.
Northern Argus (Clare) Fri 4 Feb 1876: ‘Belalie North, January 31– After eight or ten days of extremely hot weather, accompanied at times with a strong northerly wind, we have to-day been favoured with a cool south breeze, and this evening there is every appearance of rain.’
The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide) Fri 4 Feb 1876: ‘After alluding to the intense heat of the weather during the latter put of last week, the Gawler Mercury says: “On Saturday and Sunday 135 sheep from flocks being driven from the North to Adelaide were destroyed by sun stroke at Adelaide neat Gawler Belt’.
The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide) Sat 5 Feb 1876: ‘Port Augusta, February 1. The last eight days here been the worst of the season so far— enervating heat day and night; thermometer rarely below 80, and during the day up to 102 in the shade’.
Northern Argus (Clare) Fri 4 Feb 1876: ‘Port Pirie, January 28 – The weather is still very hot and oppressive causing much illness, and retarding the recovery of others.”; There has been several cases of sunstroke here, one of which, proved fatal, that of a young man named McBride, who was not noticed to be ill until a few hours before, his death. An inquest; was held at Wills’s hotel, when it was clearly proved that death resulted from sunstroke. The captain of the schooner Lady St. Aubyn was sunstruck on Saturday, also a man in the employ of Magarey & Co., but I beat they are now recovering. All the rain water is nearly exhausted, causing much inconvenience, as we have to drink that supplied by the Waterworks, which is not very pleasant, it having a tarry taste’.
Northern Argus (Clare) Fri 4 Feb 1876: ‘The last week’s hot weather, although too hot to be pleasant, has enabled the farmers to finish reaping. On Sunday [30 Jan] the long wished for change came by the wind shifting to south-west, and on Monday sight we had a violent wind and dust storm’.
Source
Glaisher