Southern NSW

As briefly noted earlier, nine houses were destroyed in 3 separate fires in southern NSW on 17 December, on a highly dangerous fire weather day. However, a cool change has brought relief to much of NSW; while numerous fires remain burning, the immediate threat has subsided.

The image, is from the 18 Dec 2009 Aqua satellite overpass with a false-colour '721' enhancement, which captures (among other things...) vegetation differences and effectively highlights burn scars on the land. These appear as reddish, brownish blotches and represent the fire's path and the area it burned.

About 30km north of Albany (A) is the Gerogery fire; 4 houses and 5200 ha burnt. In the centre of the image is the Tooma fire scar, where 2 houses and over 10 000 ha were burnt. These two fires are under control. Furthest east is the Michelago scar, 40-50 km from Canberra (C); three houses and 9000 ha burnt there. This fire is being controlled but is no longer threatening 'property'.