28 February 2007

Relatively Quiet Week

It has been a relatively quiet week on the on the bushfire front, at least as far as news reports are going. The weather has been relatively benevolent, hence no blowups as summer nominally ends. More favourable conditions for fire expected across much of SE Australia on the weekend.

The Southwest National Park fires in Tasmania are still going. Fires still not under control, but
24 000 Ha still being reported as burnt. The weekend could see these fires flare up.

A fire in Wadbilliga Nat Park on the south coast of NSW is being monitored, but allowed to burn. The area was scheduled to be burnt next month as part of a hazard reduction burn anyway.

The consequences of bushfires aren't limited to to the fires themselves, but rather a whole host of ecological impacts often follows. The township of Licola in Gippsland suffered a flash flood and mudslides after recently being ravaged by fire.

Finally, the Victorian DSE reported that the state is on track to break the record number of fires reported in a season, with about 890 fires observed thus far. This is not the worst season in terms of asset loss, however.

21 February 2007

Tasmania Update

Some serious fires have been burning in Tasmania over the past few days. See this story. 24 000 Ha burnt and still uncontrolled in Southwest Nat Park and Franklin-Gordon WIld Rivers Nat Park. These two parks cover a big portion of southwestern TAS.

Not much else has been reported in the media regarding the fires mentioned in the last post...

16 February 2007

Ash Wednesday Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of the Ash Wednesday bushfires, when 75 people in VIC and SA were killed. Fires again started in both states today, but nothing like the intensity of the fires on this day in 1983.

In SA, 160 Ha of Ngarkat Conservation Park was set ablaze from lightning.

Several fires have been started over VIC, ignited by lightning from the thunderstorms which have occured there over the past 2 days. As of tonight, one of these fires is threatening the community of Yarra Junction, east of Melbourne, with embers expected overnight. DSE reports lightning started 40 fires in VIC today. More storms are expected tomorrow afternon.


14 February 2007

Welcome to Australia Bushfire Monitor

Welcome!

As hinted at above, the purpose of this blog is to collect and collate media information regarding bushfires in Australia. This information will include news reports and imagery, as well as other unspecified objects floating around out there in cyberspace. Initially, the site will be somewhat limited. As time and knowledge permit, more features will be added.

As a first attempt, here is an image from NASA's Earth Observatory website.


It shows the dense smoke from the ongoing bushfires in Porongurup National Park, WA. This fire has been going since Sunday and has burned 5000+ Ha. Earlier tonight, the fire apparently jumped containment lines and destroyed two homes on the outskirts of Albany. It has since been contained. link.