Bushfire thinktank warns of potentially deadly season

[wayno]

Large areas of Australia's south, especially along the east and west coasts and extending inland are facing above normal fire potential for this fire season, according to the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre's recently released seasonal bushfire outlook.

http://www.greatwalks.com.au/news/bushf ... dly-season

[GPSGuided]

We will see won't we? But having a 30 deg C day in Sydney on this 7th day of spring is just weird.

[wayno]

on the whole winter has been pretty mild in NZ. I've had a tan all winter from just generally being outside on the weekends.
but the weather here in spring and early summer can be some of the worst, so its not over yet.

[GPSGuided]

Didn't know winter can be good there in NZ. Might be a good holiday option for next July.

[wayno]

winter flip flops, you get the storms but in between them the weather can be very settled... you can still have issues around avalanches and snowdrift...

[madmacca]

I think they warn of a nasty bushfire season pretty much every year.

CSIRO has a pretty good index predicting the potential spread of bushfires. Temperature, wind speed and humidity are the major factors, but low soil and vegetation moisture also play a role, and the really nasty fires (ie. those involving mass loss of life across large areas) inevitably come after a prolonged drought where those final two factors build up. And these are not present this year (in fact, I think the long term prediction is for a wetter than usual Spring in SE Australia).

Of course, this doesn't mean there can't be a bad fire in a specific location even in a benign year.

[Rob Gosford]

I think they warn of a nasty bushfire season pretty much every year.

just this afternoon in Sydney, big fires at Windsor, Richmond, Castlereagh - base of Blue Mts - properties impacted. Also 5 small fires this afternoon at Wyong on Central Coast, one at Yarramalong. Showers coming later this arvo.

in the months to come, looks like a baaaad fire season down the track

[GPSGuided]

The air is filled with soot at the moment here in inner Sydney along with good gusts of wind. Who knows what'll happen further into summer but can say the warm weather certainly came early this year.

[Taurë-rana]

11 degrees here at the moment and snow forecast to 200m I heard, but it did get warm last week. There have been warnings in Tassie for the summer bushfire season though due to all the rain and therefore growth this winter.