Southwest WA

An out-of-control fire was reported earlier today in Southwest WA, near the town of Harvey. While the fire is not directly threatening 'property' or lives. It nonetheless is having an impact in that it 'smoked out' Perth this morning, and remains a chance to do so again on Tuesday morning. The first image, taken from the linked story, shows a spectacualr aerial photo of the smopke over the city.

The second image, from the Aqua satellite around 1500 LT Monday afternoon, shows this fire roughly 130 km to the SSW of Perth (P...my P is on the southern side of Perth, away from the city centre...). At the time of this image, the smoke is not impacting the city, having cleared out with the sea breeze. The Terra image earlier in the day shows the smoke impacting the city more clearly, but the swath edge is inconveniently placed in that one...The smoke plume is quite dense and extend for some distance downstream. It has been suggested that this fire was started by an illegal campfire.

Further south, near Walpole a second set of hotspots and smoke is noted. This fire is a result of an escaped prescribed burn. AS of this evening, it has burned roughly 3000 ha, and is expected to consume near 10 000 ha before it is brought under control.