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Victoria faces bad fire season
September, 2000 While much of Australia bathed in excessive wet weather over the last two years, Victoria - like Tasmania - faced drought. As a result, fire forecasters are calling for a difficult season ahead. New South Wales and Queensland have battled their worst fire season in decades, following a dry winter which cured excessive fuel loads in the bush. But dig down 100mm and you’ll find moist soil in many places. Not so in Victoria. Dig downunder there and you’ll find more dry soil. According to Peter Blake, with the National Climate Centre in Melbourne, severe rainfall deficiencies have resulted in dams being well down and water restrictions wide-spread.. "Victoria is in the grip of a long-term dry and it is looking bad for fire this season," he said. South-east Australia’s fire season coincides with February - the hottest month in that region. "Melbourne may only have an average maximum of 25 degrees C," notes Blake," but we still get days in the low 40s and in that situation there is a strong wind from the north as well." Winds preceeding frontal changes, with hot air sucked into the forested lands of Victoria and Tasmania direct from the northern deserts, creates an explosive situation. Worse still, weak summer changes do not always affect higher elevations, and in those situations winds never stop blowing from the north over the mountainous Victorian Alps. Northerly winds are always hot, and and when a fire is lit - on purpose or by lightening strike - conditions are ripe for a serious blaze. Keeping track of these changes in wind direction, and predicting their outcome keeps forecasters like Blake on their toes. © weather-wise.com 2000 |