WHAT a hellish month we’ve had.
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The silly season in Tamworth is ostensibly prolonged.
Following Christmas and the new year, there is little reprieve before the festival flares up.
What is truly silly is this heat.
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Blustering about it won’t make it colder, but it’s oppressive and inescapable.
There has been at least 13 days over 38 degrees this month.
One day below 35 since Christmas.
It is often 30 degrees after midnight which has had an evaporative effect on sleep.
Chaffey Dam has dropped by 10 per cent in a little more than two months.
It’ll probably be the hottest January we’ve lived through, right on the tail of 2018 being the toastiest 12 months in the city’s history.
There has been no relief in more than a month and it has changed the way we are living.
And the festival is being forged into a completely new entity thanks to extreme heat.
For two years running, only passing remarks have been made by council about the effect of the heat on Tamworth’s premier event.
But it warrants more attention.
Organisers and councillors seem to comfortably reside in the anecdotal evidence people who once revelled on the streets are seeking refuge from the searing heat in the air-conditioned venues.
It might be the case, but does it mean we have to accept summers in Tamworth will just be unbearable from now on.
Do we have to accept being on the CBD streets will be intolerable for any time more than absolutely necessary?
It has been made abundantly clear how much distress the land and environment is under right now, whether it’s the paddocks we rely on to feed us or the rivers and water we need to sustain our towns.
The extremes of climate are changing our world around us, natural and man-made.
Festival is only a small part of life in Tamworth and, though it can be seen as a hindrance by some, it is important.
So when you get a chance, make sure you have your say about it and ensure all is being done to preserve it not let it wither in the heat.
