{"id":29080,"date":"2019-01-14T13:23:19","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T13:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=29080"},"modified":"2019-01-14T13:23:19","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T13:23:19","slug":"heatwave-in-australia-continues-tennis-tournament-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=29080","title":{"rendered":"Heatwave in Australia continues, tennis tournament hit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Marble Bar, a small town in western Australia<\/a>, set a new record in December as it touched a gruelling temperature of 49.4C.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, it was 49.2C, equalling January’s record of maximum temperature. It was also the 27th<\/span>\u00a0day in a row when the mercury remained above 40C in the city.<\/p>\n

Marble Bar is one of the hottest towns in Australia. Its average maximum temperature in January is 42C, which is also combined with low humidity.<\/p>\n

The new record was set with a relative humidity of 8 percent. It is this factor that allows humans to survive such heat since the sweat from our bodies cools us down. (That and air conditioning.)<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, there is a limit to human endurance. When extreme daytime heat is combined with hot nights, the risk of heat stress or heatstroke greatly increases.<\/p>\n

The equalling of record on Sunday followed a night where temperatures remained above 30C with a relative humidity of 40 percent.<\/p>\n

That may be hard to imagine, but saunas attempt to reproduce this for short periods. Such heat produces a lot of perspiration, but little evaporation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This heat has spread across Australia’s vast interior, through its southern parts to the state of Victoria.<\/p>\n

Australian Open feels the heat<\/h2>\n

In Melbourne, the Australian Open tennis tournament started with a heatwave\u00a0<\/span>forecast.<\/p>\n

The conditions on Monday were normal: 31C in the shade and about 45 percent relative humidity. This may reasonably be described as “warm and sticky”.<\/p>\n

Last year, the temperature in the shade hit 40C halfway through the tournament.<\/p>\n

This year, the forecast highs are around 33C for the first week, but the start of the second week might again bring temperatures near 40C.<\/p>\n

The organisers are ready. There is a new Australian Open heat policy, whose five-step scale allows a differing response to rising heat on the tennis court.<\/p>\n

Under the new system, 10-minute breaks will be allowed in men’s singles matches for the first time in a grand slam tennis tournament.<\/p>\n

The scale is based on the maximum heat stress an athlete can safely withstand, the sweat rate of players and their core temperatures.<\/p>\n

Though the risk looks lower this year than the last, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday remain the biggest heat threats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marble Bar, a small town in western Australia, set a new record in December as it touched a gruelling temperature of 49.4C. On Sunday, it was 49.2C, equalling January’s record of maximum temperature. It was also the 27th\u00a0day in a row when the mercury remained above 40C in the city. Marble Bar is one of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}