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.
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.
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