Topic: Away from Storms - now for the Fires

[Peter J]

All concerned;

Fire weather warnings have been issued for SA and VIC for tomorrow and wednesday 13 & 14th respectively.

Temps in both states are expected to reach well over 40deg C each day.

I know that where I live 40C and 41C are forecasted for the two days.

Seems as if from the cooler Dec and early Jan - we just get roasted into fire season.

Big Pete

[Michael Bath]

I hope none of that makes it up here - and it is not expected to apart from a possible 35 on Friday.
A large part of SW NSW is also expected low 40s today and tomorrow. 850 temps are about 2 degrees higher through the VIC/NSW border areas on Wednesday so it's going to be nasty!

[Richary]

Well after the fires flared up in SA near Port Lincoln I looked at the local observations. 41 degrees, 5% humidity and wind gusts to 66 kph. That was about midday. Not conditions I would want to be fighting fires in (and I have never been a firefighter). Nasty stuff, and yes I was in SA when the fires went through that area 3 years ago (though safely in Adelaide).

Shows how poor the media coverage is though, the ones 3 years ago if you believed the TV news had burnt out the whole bottom half of Eyre Peninsula. A year later it was obvious driving in exactly where the fire had been, and it was only a fairly small area (relatively) to the west and north of Port Lincoln. Yes - it was still disastrous and claimed 9 lives. But nowhere near the area the media was talking.

Hopefully they get things under control with the change tonight and cooler temps tomorrow.

Today for those that haven't seen it brought another fire near Killara in the National Park there (Sydney northern suburbs). Only small in area but potentially threatening homes. Hope the hot temps predicted here for Thursday before the change comes through don't bring anything too nasty.

[Harley Pearman]

Richary

There was a fire reported at or near Kurrajong heights in the Blue Mountains in which police stated that it was caused by a car that was set on fire. Fire fighters are battling that one which appears to be small at this stage.

The fire in Sydney's north may be the result of arson. So far SE Australia appears to have got off lightly despite some impressive maximum temperatures that have occurred at 3 pm 14/1/2009 such as:-

Ivanhoe 45C, Balranald 43C, Broken Hill 43C, Pooncarie 45C, Wilcania 44C, Bega 43C, Albury 42C, Wagga Wagga 41C.

Even in Sydney's west, Badgeries Creek 39.9C, Penrith 40C, Horsley Park 39.4C and 39C in Blacktown is hot and well above the average.

This heat is confined to the southern areas of the state and away from the coast.

I have seen the Erickson Sky Crane a few times this week I assume helping with the northern Sydney fire. In addition, a new thermal imaging system is being tested this week and has been used on that northern Sydney fire to locate specific hot spots. The aim is to make fire fighting easier by targetting specific hot spots as seen on the new thermal imaging being used.

The heat will be around Sydney tomorrow 15/1/2009 until a late southerly change arrives late afternoon.

Harley Pearman