duplicate post, please ignore

[amborin]

"Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Residents of Melbourne sweltered through the hottest night in more than a century as warm winds swept the city in Australia’s southeast, straining air conditioners and sending crowds to area beaches for relief.

Temperatures in Australia’s second-most populous city soared to as high as 43.6 degrees Celsius (110.5 degrees Fahrenheit) yesterday, remaining above 30 degrees Celsius throughout the night. The overnight low of 30.6 degrees Celsius matched the previous record for Melbourne’s warmest night set on Feb. 1, 1902, Stuart Coombs, duty forecaster for the Bureau of Meteorology, said in a telephone interview today.

The heat and winds drove Melbourne residents to swimming pools and air-conditioned shopping malls while thousands flocked to beaches on Port Phillip Bay. Cooler air is on the way, with temperatures forecast to reach 33 degrees Celsius today.

Electricity demand in Victoria rose to a peak of 10,105 megawatts at 5 p.m. yesterday, compared with average summer peaks of about 6,500, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator, a grouping of energy industry bodies. A record peak of 10,494 megawatts was set on Jan. 29 last year...."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ausuZoSSOv6A&pos=9