From: Steve (Primus) (Avatar) 30/10/2001 5:48:07 Subject: re: STEVE'S WEATHER FAQ post id: 476415 Why is Australia so dry? Anything to do with El Nino? The main reason Australia is so dry is its latitude. Much of Australia lies under the sub-tropical ridge, a band of high pressure that circles the globe in each hemisphere. In high pressure systems, the air is descending and there is little cloud development. All the world's major deserts lie under the subtropical ridge, except the polar deserts. El Nino is the name given to the movement of warm water across the Pacific. It augments the already existing dryness of the continent. Is Wind Burn real ? The wind cannot burn you. What people call windburn is sunburn. unless you find yourself in air in extreme temperatures In which case it will be the heat that burns you not the act of the air passing over you. Unless you plan to live in a fan-forced oven or live next to a volcano, you are unlikely to experience extremely hot air. Cloncurry recorded 53.1 on 16 January 1889 but this was on non-standard equipment. The hottest ever recorded on standard equipment was 52.8, as you say, at Oodnadatta.