Southern Hemisphere heat

With heat delaying Australian tennis and news from friends at the beach that it is too hot to swim, clearly SA and Australia are experiencing the same high temps. Well to prove a point, the farm temperatures over the last few(Three)days have been 30-32 degrees C In the seven going eight years we have been here, this has not happened and the maximum for a single day has been 32 degrees with mid 20's either side. The farm has always been a cool haven during the December to February heat period. Rainfall is also down on the average with 33 mm recorded month to date. This is however a very patchy rain year, our next but one neighbours just up the road, 5 km's have had in excess of 90 mm. Today the heat wave has broken with a glorious misty morning and a pleasant 16 degrees. The sheep and chickens are much happier and I suspect the vegetables are as well with the droplets of mist providing some moisture. Some indicators that times are tough have been popping up from various sources, A beef farmer says he usually sells between 15 and 20 cattle over the Christmas season. This year just 2! A young fellow doing porkers has a similar story. The local basic foods co-op says his December sales were below the November sale. Cut hay yesterday- sunburnt and dusty. So we face a challenging year- I am pinning our hopes on Furniture. Attaching this morning's outlook