Mid West-Gascoyne heatwave brings out the best in people with Good Samaritans offering air-conditioned homes

Good Samaritans have been offering up their air-conditioned homes to strangers in need as parts of the Mid West-Gascoyne brace for more extreme heatwave conditions close to 50C. Carnarvon resident Kylie Coniglio posted to the local noticeboard page on Facebook, offering to open her home to any elderly people in town who were without air conditioning during the heatwave. Carnarvon was the hottest place on Earth on Sunday, when it reached a staggering 49.9C, which smashed its previous record for its hottest day ever by more than 2C. “Any elderly people with no aircon hit me up come and sit and stay in my lounge room xxx coffee and loads of kids to keep you entertained,” the post said. Ms Coniglio told the Midwest Times the kind offer was to set an example for her children to be kind to others. “I have a massive house, my partner and I have four biological kids and we foster three kids — have done for the past eight years,” she said. “It’s our way to show our kids kindness towards others. If kids don’t show kindness just because they can what hope do we have for the future.” Shire president Eddie Smith said people were communicating with each other leading up to the record day and the community was prepared to deal with the heat. “Carnarvon is pretty resilient and we look after our own. It’s important that we look after each other,” he said. Carnarvon is expected to reach 37C on Tuesday, 35C on Wednesday, and 33C on Thursday and Friday, 34C on Saturday, 30C on Sunday and 29C on Monday. Gascoyne Junction is expected to be the hottest location in the region, forecast to reach 48C on Wednesday and 47C on Thursday, 46C on Friday before cooling down to an expected 38C on Saturday and 36C on Sunday and Monday. Murchison is expected to sit in the mid-40C during the week with an expected high of 46C on Wednesday, 44C on Thursday and 46C on Friday, before a forecasted cool change to 38C on Saturday and 35C on Sunday and Monday. Geraldton will get some sweet reprieve this week, sitting in the cooler area of the region, with forecasts of 33C on Wednesday and Thursday, 39C on Friday before a cool change over the weekend to 30C on Saturday, and 33C over Sunday and Monday. Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist, Jessica Lingard said the cool change was thanks to ex-tropical cyclone Lincoln which would assist in bringing showers to the region across Mullewa, Morawa and Yalgoo. A WA Country Health Service spokesperson said there had not been an increase in heat-related hospital presentations, but it was important for people to continue to follow health advice. WACHS suggest seeking a place to keep cool such as the local library, community centre or shopping centre. Keeping windows closed and drawing blinds, curtains and awnings early in the day to keep heat out of the home. It also recommends avoiding alcohol and caffeine, but drinking plenty of water and wrapping any medications needing refrigeration in foil or heat repellent containers with an icepack in case of a power outage. Geraldton broke its 70-year hottest day record on Sunday when the airport reached 49.3C, while Shark Bay also smashed its record with its maximum on Sunday of 49.8C. Geraldton’s peak on Monday of 47.7C equalled the previous record set in January 1954.