NZ to help Australia with bushfires

[trev]

Australia is suffering seriiously from the efforts of an El Nino induced severe drought with minimal rainfall in much of the country for 6 months now, leading to extremely dry grassland and forest conditions. In the last 3 weeks a series of dry lightning storms have started a large number of fires, many of which continue to burn. The firefighters in Victoria in partivular have suffered from about 60 fires burning in the NE of the state in remote, mountainous and heavily forested country and have inadequate resources to deal with this number of fires.
With Queensland firefighters already moving into NSW which likewise has its firefighters stretched thin with many fires in mountainous terrain, and SA and tasmania firefighters also struggling with numerous lightning strikes, the Victorians have been forced to go to New Zealand to seek help to fight the fires. It is expected that a force of 100 - 130 firefighters from NZ will arrive in Victoria within several days.
It is likely that the many of the 50 odd uncontrolled fires in NE Victoria will merge into several massive fires which could burn in excess of 10 000 square kilometres over the next few weeks. As further lightning strikes are forecast for the period Friday through to Sunday across 4 states with temperatures potentially rising to 40C+ (105F) and relative humidities decreasing to below 5% along with strong winds there are serious concerns that the current desperate situation for firefighters could worsen dramatically by the end of the weekend.
The good news is that 1 major fire that burnt 120 000 hectares (50 sq miles) in SA and was burning on a 200km front has now been contained, but with temperatures in the area to reach 40C within 2 days, the containment of the fire may be shortlived.

[Caligastia]

A friend of mine in Brisbane says the water supply is down to 25%.

[Japher]

Aussie Sheep beware!

[Caligastia]

mmmm...roast lamb. Anyone got any mint sauce?

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by Caligastia
A friend of mine in Brisbane says the water supply is down to 25%.

Not good at all.
Here's hoping the problem doesn't last much longer.
I know about droughts.

[DaShi]

More international problems being blamed on Bush.

[Frozzy]

With Queensland firefighters already moving into NSW which likewise has its firefighters stretched thin with many fires in mountainous terrain, and SA and tasmania firefighters also struggling with numerous lightning strikes, the Victorians have been forced to go to New Zealand to seek help to fight the fires. It is expected that a force of 100 - 130 firefighters from NZ will arrive in Victoria within several days.

Well they certainly aren't needed here with our weather recently.

[Flubber]

Its good to help your neighbors. Canada and the US often help each other out with water-bombers and firefighters IIRC.

Although some fires, I think all you can do is try to hold a line and hope for as wind change to push the fire back on itself in areas with insufficient fuel

[alva]

Originally posted by Caligastia
mmmm...roast lamb. Anyone got any mint sauce?

Mint sauce.....

[Caligastia]

Yes, mint sauce. Crushed mint leaves with vinegar. Perfect with lamb.

[ískallin]

They could send every firefighter from the Taranaki region down to Wellington over the ditch to help them Aussies out. It rains here every other day

[trev]

Horrific weather conditions from tomorrow

The weather forecast for the major fire areas of the Victorian alps is for 3 days of very hot weather culminating in a day of high winds and temperatures exceeding 40C (105F). Fire behaviour has already become extreme with fires merging into larger fires. The number of fires has reduced by about half from 50 to below 30, due to fires merging, not being controlled. A total of 150 000 hectares has now been burnt with the expectation that within 3 days most of the fires will hae merged into one superfire that will have burnt in excess of 600 000 hectares.
In South Australia where I live, all fires have been controlled, but the weather is very hot with a temperatures today being above 40C virtually statewide, and a hotter day likely tomorrow with stronger winds and a very high probability of multiple dry lightning strikes over most of the state. The eastern areas of the state will have temperatures around 43C (110F) with humidities down to 3% and winds gusting in excess of 50 kmh (30mph). A mild change tomorrow evening will cool SA down a little but it will take 1 - 2 more days to reach across Victoria where the worst fires are.

[trev]

Saturday has passed without a major increase in fire activity. South Australia experienced temperatures up to 44C (111F), but not the predicted lightning so far, and all new fires were contained while still very small, winds were not as bad as expected.
In Victoria, the temperatures were high, but likewise winds were not too bad, so although fires spread significantly in many directions, it has not breached control lines protecting isolated towns, although many towns still have fires in close proximity and remain under serious threat.
The presence in the fire region of many units from New Zealand, New South Wales, Australian Capital territory and the military has aided in the massive backburning operations needed to protect property.
While the forecast for South Australia is reasonable for the next 3 days, Victoria must endure another very dangerous day tomorrow before fire conditions moderate.

[trev]

The fire situation did not worsen significantly on the weekend despite the very hot weather, mainly because the winds were less than predicted. However on Monday the cooler weather brought with it gale to storm force winds, which were worse in the island state of Tasmania. About 18 houses were burnt when a firestorm whipped up by wind gusts reaching 120kmh whipped into a coastal town on the east coast of Tasmania. On Tuesday this fire is still burning out of control and continuing to seriously threaten farms and towns with evacuation of some residents taking place.
In Victoria the two largest fires have merged created a fire of 250 000 hectares plus and an active front of about 300km. Six houses have been burnt and also a ski resort buildings have been burnt on Mt Buffalo. The increased wind strength of the last 2 days have resulted in significant fire spotting across containment lines and ligthning on Monday also started a number of new fires including a major fire in the alpine region of Tumut on the NSW side of the border, another fire that may well burn for weeks or months because of inaccessible country.

[snoopy369]

I hope this doesn't cut my lamb chop supply down

(Just kidding, well, mostly. Hope things work out okay for those brave Aussies...)

Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oy Oy Oy!