That sick feeling in your stomach when you wake suddenly to the smell of smoke. Heart beating faster you search the house...only to realise that it's from outside.
Melbourne is at least 100km from the nearest fire, indeed the smoke this morning came from Tasmania. Today it has been like a mid-winter's day...the light has been soft and yellowish, a very light rain has fallen and everywhere the pervading smell of smoke. It got worse as the day progressed. Smoke from the east and north blew in, swimming pools closed because of the air quality and it felt like perpetual dusk.
This however is nothing compared to the communities that are really affected. Their days have been turning to night - black night. So far this fire season around 6 million hectares have burned in Australia - that's roughly 6 times the area burned in the Amazon fires last year, over 6 times the area burned in California. Whilst there is a small respite, the fire will flare again later in the week and more will burn.
Visibility in this shot is around 150 metres before it is seriously degraded - by smoke, not rain.