Southeast bushfires update

In TAS, the South West Conservation Area fire has grown during the day, having now burnt 2 400 ha. Smoke from the fires affected Hobart today, as seen in the photo. Rain and cooler conditions are expected overnight and tomorrow, hopefully allowing firefighters to gain control over the blaze.

The Little Desert in western VIC are now burning within containment lines. It has burnt 15 990 ha. The Lascelles-Wathe fire is still listed as 'Going' with 4 000 ha burnt. Conditions tomorrow are expected to be cooler, but winds are forecast to remain strong. Moderate to High fire dangers remain.

A fire in the Riverland region of SA, the Bruno Bay fire, has been burning for a few days. It has burnt more than 900 ha and has now been brought under control. The earlier expected threat to nearby towns did not materialize today, and the danger has likely passed.

The Prill Park-Euston bushfire in southern NSW has also been contained.

VIC, TAS bushfires: 19 Nov

As expected, fire activity was widespread throughout Victoria and Tasmania today. Maximum temperatures were above average across much of the region and fire danger ratings climbed into the very high to extreme range across much of the area, including northern SA, western VIC , southern NSW and Tasmania. Several media reports were made.

• Fires continue to burn as temperatures soar – ABC News

Seven fires are burning out of control across Victoria as temperatures soar into the high 30's.

As of this evening (19^th), the two main fires listed yesterday remain uncontrolled. The DSE indicates that both have essentially doubled in size today, with the Little Desert fire now at 15 000 ha and the Lascelles-Wathe is at 4000 ha. The Prill Park-Euston fire just across the border in NSW is reported as 'Being Controlled”, with a size of 1500 ha being reported. A small bushfire was also reported in northern VIC, near Shepparton.

• Tasmania fighting first major bushfires of the season – ABC News

In Tasmania's south-west conservation area the Adamsfield walking track is being threatened by another bushfire.

Fire officers are blaming a lightning strike for the 340 hectare fire in button grass moorland, about 30 kilometres west of Maydena.

At Cradle Mountain, Parks and Wildlife crews are monitoring a blaze at Middlesex Plains on Cradle Mountain Road.

That fire has consumed 235 hectares but crews say there is no threat to life or property.

The South West fire and Cradle Mountain fire are listed as 'going' tonight on the Tasmania Fire Service website. Several others are listed, but they are contained or being patrolled. The image is from that site and shows the area burnt (500 ha) in the South West fire.

Fire weather conditions are expected to be very high to extreme across much of the regions tomorrow, as well, with temperatures in the 30s and gusty, northerly winds ahead of a frontal passage in the afternoon.

Weekend Victoria fires; threat continues

Multiple fires reported in western VIC and SA today area over the past two days. Fire conditions have been in the very high to extreme, and fire bans have been issued for portions of SA.

In Victoria, 20 bushfires were sparked on Saturday. Including several in small fires in Gippsland (eastern VIC) which remain listed as 'Going' as of Sunday night (DSE webpage) and one near the main water catchment for Melbourne which required water-bombing.

The largest fires were (and are) in the western portion of the state. These are seen in the MODIS 'Australia5' subset image from the Aqua satellite, captured this afternoon around 1445 LT. Sizes are current as of 2000 LT as gathered from the DSE Fires Today website. Two hotspot areas are seen; the southern-most one is the 'Salt Lake Track' fire in the Little Desert National Park. It has burnt 7000 ha and is not under control at this time. The most northerly Victorian fire is the Lascelles-Wathe fire, which has burnt 2000 ha and also remains uncontrolled.

The fire in NSW is listed as the 'Prill Park Euston' fire on the Current Incidents page of the NSW RFS. No size information is given, but the fire is listed as going. (but that update is fairly old...)

Tomorrow (the 19^th) will likely be another big fire day across much of the region. Fire weather warnings (and fire ban in some cases) are in effect for southern NSW, northern SA and the Flinders Ranges, eastern Tasmania and western VIC. Temperatures are also high in other areas (37 C in Melbourne!), and fire danger should be enhanced (although no warnings are in effect).

New central NT fires

Over the past week or so, a new round of large fires has cropped up in central portions of NT. Some imagery showing the time evolution of some of these fires is shown below. These images are cut from the NASA MODIS subsets on the day indicated. The pixel size is 1 km, and the image is 500 x 325 pixels. The area extracted is identical in each image.

In the western portions of the territory, about 70 km NW of Lajamanu, a rapidly burning fire is underway. Reviewing MODIS imagery suggests this fire started on 11 November, when a few isolated hotspots were seen. On the 12^th, the Terra satellite passed over at 0145 UTC (1115 local time) with only a few hotspots detected. By the time of the Aqua overpass approximately 3 hours later, the fire had undergone a massive expansion. The NAFI map and imagery from earlier today suggested continued expansion towards the SW and on the northern portions. The total are affected to date is about 180 000 ha. Conditions today were not as severe as past days, although fire danger ratings were generally in the high to very high category.

More centrally located, to the north of Elliott and west of Daly Waters, two broad areas of fire are noted in the current image, a large L-shaped one to the east and a smaller area to the west. The eastern area was initially two separate fires which have since merged their burnt areas. This duo of fires was initially detected on 7 Nov, as well as an additional one south of the duo, closer to Elliott. The image from that day shows some prominent smoke plumes streaming off to the west. particularly the northernmost one. The fire closer to Elliott also shows a plume, but it went out over the next day.

The western most was initially spotted on the 8^th. By the 9^th, this fire had become well established. Areas of the three fires on the 9^th were: eastern – 26 000 ha; central – 100 000 ha; eastern – 70 000 ha.

On the 11^th, the two western areas began to merge and moved toward the north, creating the L shape. This tendency continued on the 12^th, with the northern extent of the L and the western fire showing distinct smoke plumes. On the 13^th, the region was covered by clouds in one image and out of the satellite swath in the other. The image from the 14^th is partially obscured by clouds, expecially the western fire. Hence, its status is not clear, although there are a few detected hotspots in the vicinity. It's affected area is roughly 140 000 ha. The eastern 'L' fire continues to burn along a long eastern flank. It's total affected area is on the order of 400 000+ ha.

Australian Bushfire Activity: 28 Oct - 6 Nov 2007

Below is the latest 10-day composite hotspot image for Australia from the NASA MODIS Rapid Response Global Fire Maps. The dates of the composite from 28 October through 6 November 2007.

During this period, fire activity is focused in the northern portion of the continent, particularly in QLD, from the Cape York Peninsula and into the Gulf Country regions of the state. Although numerous fires are burning, no reports of Significant Fire Activity of have been made on the QFRS web site...

The fire level of fire activity on Cape York is about the same as noted in the previous composite. These are generally relatively separate fires rather than a huge organized burning area. A broad range of activity is seen from Auruku down south towards Kowanyama. Similarly, the broad area abour 150 km WNW of Cooktown is also two or three smaller fires. These were also reported in the last update.

New fires are seen further south in Queensland, toward the Gulf Country and Central Queensland regions, east of Normanton and in the vicinity of Croydon. There aqre several individual areas of fire, some quite large. Using archived MODIS imagery from the NASA Rapid Repsonse, the fires in this vicinity appear to have originated around the 30 October. There is evidence of convection in the vicinity on this day, so lightning is a possible ignition source of these fires. On Friday, 9 October (after the period of the composite...), sizes of some of the fires in this vicinity as estimated using the NAFI website were:

• croydon south 428 000 ha
• croydon west 62 000 ha
  
• miranda downs 220 000 ha
  
• strathmore 60 000 ha
• strathmore east 70 000 ha
  
• highbury south 165 000 ha
  
• waitan 75 000 ha

In the remainder of eastern Queensland, isolated hotspots are observed. No major fire activity is indicated.

In the region of the Gulf straddling the NT/QLD border, the very large fires noted in the last composite have been extinguished. Several smaller areas, near the coast have started during the composite period, and have continued afterwards. Four main areas were seen, ranging in size from 25 000 to 125 000 ha.

Fire activity also continues in much of the NT as well, but is considerably diminished in many areas. Much of the western NT and eastern Kimberley, extending south in the NW SA received an early bout of heavy rainfall, with well above normal totals being seen (which is actually pretty easy to do, as it normally doesn't rain at all...). Eastern portions of Arnhem Land remain active. One large area of 170 000 ha is seen, as well as numerous smaller areas. In the central portions of NT, the 'fast-moving' fire near Rabbit Flat stands out quite prominently (This is how I noticed it...).

There continues to be several large fires burning in west Kimberley. Many of the smaller fires in the east are no longer burning, like due to the precipitation. The remainder of WA is also reasonably quiescent, a few isolated hotspots in the Pilbara, and a few (likely agricultural/ prescribed fires) noted in the forested areas of the SW.

In SA, a contiguous region of hotspots is noted in a very remote region to the NE of the Nullarbor, probably close to the railway. It appears to have occurred on the 28^th and 29^th of October. Little of interest (other than the hotspots...) is visible in the imagery from those days – no smoke, etc.

The remainder of the country is quiet. Much of the SE has seen significant precipitation during this at least part of this period, likely dampening fire activity for at least a few weeks. The fires note previously in Tasmania, associated with the 'October bump' are out. No major incidents have been reported in NSW since the middle of October, and no incidents are currently listed on the NSW Rural Fire service website. There are a few widely scattered hotspots in the SE; these are likely controlled burns or other short-lived phenomena.

A fast-moving NT fire

An large and very quick-burning bushfire was seen in late-October in eastern NT. The NAFI website does not record this fire in the real-time fire scar mapper. The fire occurred in a very remote area, about midway between Lajamanu and Yuendumu, roughly 100 km SSE of the AWS at Rabbit Flat. As a very rough estimate,made by estimating the position and shape of the burnt area in NAFI from the satellite imagery, the total area burnt was on 100 000 – 150 000 ha. All told, the fire only burned for 3-4 days and overwhelming majority of the spread of the fire occurred in a roughly 24-h period.

I didn't actually catch this in real-time, as I was still traveling when it occurred. Rather, I have had to track the all the information down approximately two weeks later. AS it is in such a remote area, there are no media reports to work off of.

Below is a set of daily images culled from the “Australia2” MODIS subset image archives. I have excerpted the small area around the fire. The area shown in the various images is the same in all of them. The pixel size is 1 km and the image size is 520 x 240 pixels. The odd-shaped white spot in the southwest corner is Lake Mackay, which straddles the WA/NT border. For a scale, the longest length of the lake, along the diagonal, is about 100 km. The images speak for themselves; I will only add a few comments.

Imagery

25 October – no fire apparent

26 October – fire begins. Terra image (not shown) is clear, shows small
hotspots. Aqua has clouds, pyrocumulus suggested rising from location of hotspot. Also a small hotspot to SE is seen on the Terra image.

27 October – some small fire spread. Two sets of hotspots in Terra image (not shown). In Aqua image, the eastern hotspot is obscured by pyrocumulus and smoke.

28 October – fire explodes. Huge smoke plume extending to the ESE. The fire to the SE also expands, but not to the extent of the northern area.

29 October – still some hotspots, but no expansion of area. Aqua image (not shown) suggests plume is now traveling to the NW (i.e. From the SE). Terra image shows full extent of fire. Terra image time uncertain, as fire region is between two swaths of data.

30 October (no image)– extensive clouds, but no hotspots or smoke are apparent in breaks. Fire apparently out.

Weather

The blowup of the fire between the 27^th and 28^th was apparently associated with the passage of a deep low in the Bight. Surface charts suggest W to NW winds, which gradually increased from the 26^th to the 28^th, peaking on the last day. Maximum temperatures were above 40C at both Lajamanu and Rabbit Flat, 2-4 degrees above normal. Fire dangers were approaching extreme (at a minimum!) with fully cured grass and a even a moderate wind. Quite possibly a fire ban was issued for the region. There was one ongoing in SA that day...The fires were possibly started by lightning. The satellite imagery for both the 25th and 26th (archived here) does show some suggestion on convective activity in the general vicinity. Yuendumu reported 20 mm of rain in the 24 hrs to 9am on the 26th, likely of convective origin.

Australian Bushfire Activity: 18-27 Oct 2007

Below is the latest 10-day composite of hotspots from Australia as presented as the NASA MODIS Rapid Response map. The image identifies all hotspots detected over the 10 days in question by the MODIS instruments on board the NASA Terra and Aqua satellites. The dates of the image are 18 through 27 October.

The main focus of fire activity during this period remained in the NT. The Tanami Desert fires remained visible in the latest image, although it largely appears to be out at this time, with only a few hotspots remaining. The main region of this complex area of fires burnt over 6.5 million hectares (although this is not continuous, somewhat spotty in regions).

The fires in the Gulf regions of NT, earlier reported (several weeks ago) as flaring up, are also seen in the image. Two large areas of fire are seen in the image. The first is 100-200 km south of Ngukurr in the SE Top End, which has affected about 2.5 to 3 million ha of land. The second is about 200 km NNW of Camooweal, on the QLD-NT border. It has affected about 1 million ha. Both fires show recent hotspot activity at this time, although not as intense as before. The NASA Earth Observatory Natural Hazards site presented a MODIS “721” image of the fires here.

Several other large regions of hotspots are noted in SW NT, west of Katherine and through out Arnhem Land.

The Kimberley region of WA, particularly the western portion, also show some large contiguous areas of hotspots. These fires have been burning for quite some time. Elsewhere, a large reward was offered for information on the deliberately lit fires near Kununurra which took more than a week to control.

In the Pilbara, several somewhat isolated areas of fire are noted south of Port Hedland. Further inland, about 100 km SE of Telfer Mining Centre, an area of hotspots encompassing ~200 000 ha is seen.

In the forested regions of SW WA, several hotspots are seen. Unclear what the source of these are, but controlled fuel reduction burns are a likely scenario. Further east, in the broad vicinity of Laverton, WA, a large “ring” of hotspots is seen.

Northern Queensland has also been quite active. Several large areas of fire are noted in the vicinity of Aurukun, along the west coast of the Peninsula. NAFI suggests that this is currently several smaller separate areas/fires, each about 10-50 thousand hectares in size. A large area is also apparent north of Cooktown, although NAFI again suggests that this is several smaller areas which appear merged on the large-scale image. News reports noted fires threatening property were also noted near Cairns and Townsville.

Further south, in south-east QLD, scattered hotspots are seen over a wide area. Fires threatening property were reported near the Gold Coast, in north Brisbane and near Noosa.

This broad region of scattered hotspots extends down into NSW, particularly in the forested areas. These fires are not reported as major incidents, and many may not have even been attended, as suggested by the lack of response (ie. lack of incident names) to some of the more remote fires indicated in this post. Several of the fires noted there (and some that weren't) were also noted in the news, including the Big Badja, a Monaro blaze and the major Mt Kembla fire.

Numerous hotspots are seen in Tasmania, with over 15 bushfires reported in this news article. These fires are due to the so-called October bump, a small (and relatively short lived) rise in fire danger which is typically observed this time of year in TAS. Usually, it decreases again before the onset of the major summer season. This year, many fire are particularly noted in the far SE corner of the state.

Finally, a few widespread hotspots are noted in VIC. These are likely prescribed burns.

doing without

Due to travel, no new posts until the end of October.

See you then!

NSW fires: 16 Oct 07

Fire bans were in effect across much of coastal NSW today, from roughly the Newcastle area southward. Portions of the state on the inland side of the ranges were also included.

Conditions were as predicted across the region. Extreme fire dangers were observed in the Hunter regions, as well as in the Sydney metro area and further south, down in Nowra. FFDI in Sydney hit 83 today, which is quite high. In Canberra and in the north, maximum FFDI was in the very high range.

The image shows the MOIDS true color subset image of coastal region of NSW. Place names are in yellow. The orange words are the names of the fires corresponding with the NSW RFS incident reports. The dark part was captured at 0310 UTC; the remainder at 0440UTC.(It was on the edge of the swath, so the image is a bit dark)...Numerous fires are seen up and down the coast, especially in the northeast corner of the state.

The most serious fire was the Mt Kembla fire, to the west of Wollongong. It threatened houses earlier in the day, but as of the evening of the 16th, the winds have shifted and the fire is being controlled, expected to grow to ~300 ha and remain within containment lines. Some of the hotspots on the map are not identified in the RFS Current Incident reports, particularly those in the NE near Tenterfield.

Oppositely, several of the fires identified in the incident list are not apparent, particularly those in the Sydney area. The main north highway, and train servicesnear Mt Colah was closed earlier today due to a bushfire, but has since been re-opened (approximate local marked with an orange 'x'). Fires in Lithgow and Campbelltown are also not apparent as hotpsots.

Fire weather conditions are not expected to be as severe on the 17th. No fire bans are in effect.

SE Australia fire weather: 15 Oct 2007

Large portions of SE Australia are expected to see dangerous fire weather conditions tomorrow.

Conditions tomorrow are forecast to be hot and windy across much of the area. A approaching frontal system is expected to bring temperature in the upper-20s and low-30s, with strong, gusty NW winds. A change to a cooler SW winds is expected in the evening. This situation is reminiscent of the classic fire weather synoptic pattern across this region.

'High' to 'Very High' dangers are expected over much of the region, and fire bans in some areas. As of 2200 Sunday night (14^th), Fire weather warnings have been issued in

• South Australia: Eastern Eyre Peninsula, West Coast

• New South Wales: Northern Riverina, Southern Riverina, South West

In Victoria, no official fire weather warnings have been issued, but the Bureau did issue a “non-routine” outlook for fire weather due to expected conditions. At Melbourne AP, fire danger is forecast to briefly touch 'extreme'.

The most extreme weather looks to be focused on the regions near the Murray River in both NSW and VIC, and on the Eyre Peninsula in SA, although the potential for bushfires with dangerous fire behaviour exists across most of the southeast portion of the country.

NT flare-up

As expected today, dangerous fire weather was observed across much of the Gulf areas of NT and QLD and into Victoria River district of the Territory. Temperatures were in the mid- to upper-30s, with relative humidities in below 20% for much of the afternoon. Winds were from the E and SE about 20km/h, with higher gusts.

As a result of this weather there was expansion of the many fires previously going, as well as many new fire starts today. Below are excerpts from the 2-km NASA MODIS “subset” image from the Aqua satellite, one from the 13th and one from 12th. Comparing the two images , a dramatic increase in the number of hotspots is seen today. Much of this new activity is observed in the “Roper McArthur” and “Barkly” BoM regions, exactly where the fire weather warnings (and the fire ban) were issued. Some of these hotspots are in the vicinity of the Stuart Highway, so driving conditions may be dangerous in some locales.

13 Oct 0420 UTC

12 Oct 0515 UTC

Comparing the days, the hotspots from today are producing more smoke, and in general the Top End is much hazier. This is consistent with the afternoon NT weather briefing, where the available 'present weather' obs indicate smoke and haze across the region. Some smoke and haze is visible on the 12^th, it is just more widespread on the 13^th.

The Tanami desert fires are in the southern portion of the image. They are gradually inching closer to the town of Elliott, being about 45 km away from there at this time. From NAFI, this fire looks like it may be affecting the railway.

The latest update from the Bureau suggests the worse fire weather has passed, and no bans or warnings have been issued for tomorrow.

Issued by the BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY, DARWIN
at 1700 CST Saturday 13 OCTOBER 2007
for the rest of today.

Fire Danger over the Roper-McArthur, Victoria River and Barkly Districts has eased - no further warnings will be issued.

No news items regarding these fires have been noted at this time.

QLD-NT fire weather warnings: 13 Oct 07

Fire weather warnings are in effect for NT and QLD around the Gulf of Carpenteria and into central NT...There are active fires in these regions which may flare up with the extreme conditions. A fire ban has been issued for the NT regions

FIRE WEATHER WARNING
for the Roper-McArthur, Victoria River and Barkly districts.

Issued by the BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY, DARWIN
at 2230 CST Friday 12 OCTOBER 2007
for the rest of tonight and Saturday.

Fire Danger over the southern Barkly, southern Victoria River, and northern
Alice Springs districts has eased. However, dry, fresh and gusty east to
southeasterly winds are expected to cause NEAR EXTREME TO EXTREME Fire Danger
over the Roper-McArthur, Victoria River and Barkly districts during Saturday.

FIRE WEATHER WARNING
for the Gulf Country and Northwest Districts.
Issued at 11:14pm on Friday the 12th of October 2007
for Saturday.

Dry, gusty S to SE winds will produce extreme fire dangers in grassland areas in
the Gulf Country and Northwest districts during Saturday. In the Gulf Country,
these dry winds will also be accompanied by high temperatures.

Far north NSW bushfires: 11Oct 07

The bushfire that has been raging in Bundjalung National Park, south of Evans Head for several weeks now has been brought under containment in the past few days. Rain and severe storms have been present over the past several days, which aided the firefighters in containing the blaze (and preventing me from a good picture of the fires!). Mopping up operations are continuing tomorrow (12 October).

The image is culled from the 250-m “721” MODIS image 0010UTC overpass of the Terra satellite (taken from the NASA MODIS Rapid Response page). A few geographic locations are marked on the image. The fire scar with the Bundjalung blaze is apparent as a red area just to the south of Evans Head. This fire has burnt just over 6000 ha.

Temperatures in the region are expected to be in the low-mid 30s tomorrow, bring the chance of a flare-up of the fires. The Bureau predicts fire dangers of moderate to high...presumably the recent rain has moistened the fuels a bit, lowering the fire danger.

Several major fires have been observed in this general area since mid-August. In the image, several fire scars are seem just south of the Lismore area. Smaller, more faint fire scars are also noted throughout the region.

Australian Bushfire Activity: 28 Sep-7Oct 2007

Below is the latest 10-day hotspot composite map for Australia taken from the NASA MODIS Rapid Response website. The dates of the composite are 28 September through 7 October 2007.

Over the last 10 days, fire activity continues to be focused in the northern reaches of the country, particularly the Northern Territory. Many of these fires were discussed in the post NT Update, right before the end of the composite period. The fires discussed there are readily visible on the composite map.

There continue to be large fires burning in the Kimberley. At this time, the largest fires are burning in the central portion of the region, with large sections of the west having previously burned out. All told, a total area of approximately 4.7 million hectares (not contiguous) has been burnt since August. The areas currently ablaze represent an upswing in activity since the previous overview.

Several medium to large areas of hotspots are noted in the Pilbara, south of Port Hedland.

Far north Queensland also continues to see some fire activity in the greater Weipa area, as well as in the vicinity of Cairns. None of these areas seem especially large, and the total area covered is roughly the same as last period.

Further west, about 230 km from Cairns, two large area have been active over the last ten days. Fires in this general vicinity were noted in the previous update. I think I over-reported the area in these fires there. A better assessment has them at roughly 50 000 ha each.

SE QLD and northern NSW still show widespread hotspot activity. This region, and indeed much of coastal NSW has been very active over the past 10 days, with several fire bans issued, one home destroyed near Salt Ash, north of Newcastle and a large,difficult-to- control bushfire nears Evan's Head.

Much of this region has been subject to rain and severe weather (after the time of the composite) which initially hampered fire-fighting efforts, but has since brought the Evan's Head fire under control.

Several hotspots are noted in the wheatbelt regions of WA. These are likely fuel reduction burns. There are also a few hotspots noted in Victoria recently. These are fuel reductions burns, as well.

Some widely-scattered wildfire activity in the desert regions of southeastern WA.

NT update

While much focus has been placed on events in NSW over the past few days, large regions of northern Australia, particularly in the NT continue to burn. Most of these fires have been noted previously on Australia Bushfire Monitor, most recently here.

Both images here are extracted from the Terra satellite overpass on 6 Oct 2007 at 0125 UTC (about 1100 NT time...). The original resolution is 500 m, although the image quality has been degraded. Red squares are hotspots detected by the MODIS instrument onboard the satellite. All noted locations are approximate.

The first image is from the central portion of the territory. Three large area either burning or recently burnt (the dark charred looking bits...) are apparent. (For a sense of scale, the distance between Daly Waters and Elliott is roughly 145 km.).

The two areas east of Daly Waters have been burning for about a week or so, and were noted in their incipient stages in this post. The western most fire has affected about 245 000 ha. Only a few small areas of hotspots remain. The more eastern fire is quite large and quite active. The area it is affecting is approaching 900 000 ha. Thick plumes of smoke are noted from the numerous hotspots on the southern and eastern flanks. These two areas are east of what was previously reported as the QLD/NT border fires, which affected about 1.4 million ha in the NT alone.

The third area, to the south and west of Elliott is the Tanami desert fires. It has been burning for approximately a month at this time. A quite broad and active fire front is apparent on the image. The length of the front is over 200 km. A large cluster of hotspots is apparent on the eastern end of the flank. There is currently not too much with this fire, although a few pyrocumulus are noted on the western side of the line.

The second image was extracted from a bit further north, in the southern and southeastern portions of the Top End. For scale, the distance between Katherine and Ngukurr is about 250 km. The fires which were previous reported in the Katherine area have been put out. A few small burn scars can be seen.

The eastern most fires, with the exception of the one east and south of Ngukurr, are all part of a loosely associated cluster of fires in that many of the burnt areas of the individsual events are contiguous. In all, over 1 million ha has been affected, though not with the same intensity from looking at the patchiness of color in the general area/ This is further supported by NAFI, which shows very splotchy automated burn scars.

To the northeast of Katherine are two main areas of fire. While there areas are currently active with a fair number of hotspots, NAFI suggests that much of the region was burnt earlier in the season, suggesting that these fires may not burn for too much longer. The first area of hotspots southeast of Katherine is burning near the Stuart highway, and may have or will affect traffic on the road.

NSW fire ban: 6Oct07

From the Bureau of Meteorology

NSW FIRE WEATHER WARNING
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
New South Wales
Issued at 1605 on Friday the 5th of October 2007
for  Saturday 6th October 

Hot, dry and windy conditions are expected to cause VERY HIGH TO EXTREME FIRE
DANGER in the following NSW Fire Areas:

Greater Hunter, 
Northern Slopes, Northwestern, 
Upper Central West Plains, Greater Sydney Region, 

TOTAL FIRE BAN 

The Commissioner, NSW Rural Fire Service will TOTALLY BAN THE LIGHTING OF FIRES
from midnight tonight [Friday 5th October] until midnight tomorrow night
[Saturday 6th October] in the following NSW Fire Areas:

Greater Hunter, 
Northern Slopes, Northwestern,
Upper Central West Plains, 
Greater Sydney Region,

The image is the so-called Banda Banda fire, captured 4 Oct at 1005 AEST. This image has 250 m resolution and is taken from the NASA MODIS Rapid Response Real Time site. In it, a thick plume of smoke is visible from the region of fire. A pyrocumulus cloud is also visible.

Several other nearby, but separate hotspots are also apparent in the image. The fire is burning in a large area of forest (Kumbatine, Willi Willi and Boonanghi National Parks) and wouldn't seem to be an immediate threat to property.

As of 5 Oct 1710 local time, this fire is listed as 'Going' and has burnt just over 4700 ha.

While this fire is not under the fire ban, fire conditions are predicted to be locally 'VERY HIGH' in the current forecast from BoM.

The Port Stephens fires, north of Newcastle, and now mostly contained are in the fire ban region. The previous days of more moderate weather have allowed fire fighters to better prepare for the current extreme period, deepening and strengthening containment lines. Water bombers will be in operation throughout the area tomorrow.

A fire ban is also in effect in the Alice Springs district in the southern part of NT.

Fires still burning in NSW

The start to the NSW fire season remains ominous. Maximum temperatures in Sydney were 13 degrees above normal today. Fire danger conditions across much of reached extreme much of the state. No new major fires were started, but several pre-existing one flared up. By the afternoon, homes were under threat in the Oyster Cove/Salt Ash fires.

This image was captured by the MODIS instrument aboard the Aqua satellite at 3 Oct 2007 0340 UTC (1340 AEST). It is extracted from the larger 'browse image' available at the NASA MODIS Rapid Response Real Time Data website. This is a true color image with 250 m pixel resolution. The area north of Newcastle, NSW is shown. The red squares indicate the location of hotspots -- the bushfire – detected by satellite. The Salt Ash fires are at the south end of the squares. The Oyster cove region is at the north end. A large, thick plume of smoke is seen moving out to sea.

As of this evening, these fires have been contained and are no longer posing a threat to houses.

• Some NSW bushfires contained – ABC News

Cooler conditions are gradually moving up the New South Wales coast, helping firefighters contain a number of bushfires around the state.

Around Port Stephens, north of Newcastle, crews have managed to contain bushfires at Salt Ash, Oyster Cove and Swan Bay that had earlier threatened homes.

Its not really clear what is going on right now. The 5pm report on the fire from the Rural Fire Service says

More than 100 fire fighters are working on fires burning in the Tilligerry Peninsula area and any new fire outbreaks in the Port Stephens area. The fires have burnt out about 860 hectares of National Parkland, private property and Hunter Water Catchment land. One home was destroyed by fire in Salt Ash on Monday afternoon.

Around eight aircraft are currently supporting ground operations.

Strike teams will be deployed to provide property protection as required. These crews will be supported by water bombing aircraft. Other crews will continue to work to minimise spot fire activity and protect property with the onset of the predicted strong westerly winds.

Fire has broken containment lines south of Medowie, near the RAAF bombing range, and RAAF crews are working on scene.

The Oyster Cove fire has also broken containment lines to the south of the township. A temporary road closure is now in place on Lemon Tree Passage Road between Oyster Cove and Nelson Bay Roads. Local traffic is still being allowed through at this stage. Further road closures in the area may occur without warning.

Fire danger is not expected to be as high tomorrow (4 October), with no extreme fire weather expected.

Another major bushfires in NSW are reported at Evans Head in the far north, where more than 1400 hectares of national park and private property have been burnt. No imagery of these fires available due to cloud cover over the region.

NSW/ACT fire ban: 3 Oct 2007

From the Bureau of Meteorology Current Warnings:

NSW FIRE WEATHER WARNING
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
New South Wales
Issued at 1644 on Tuesday the 2nd of October 2007
for  Wednesday 3rd of October 

Hot, dry and windy conditions are expected to cause VERY HIGH TO EXTREME FIRE
DANGER in the following NSW Fire Areas:

North Coast, Greater Hunter, New England, 
Illawarra/Shoalhaven, 
Central Ranges, Southern Ranges, 
Northern Slopes, Northwestern, 
Upper Central West Plains, Lower Central West Plains, 
Southern Slopes, Northern Riverina,
Greater Sydney Region, 
ACT

TOTAL FIRE BAN 

The Commissioner, NSW Rural Fire Service will TOTALLY BAN THE LIGHTING OF FIRES
from midnight tonight [Tuesday 2nd of October] until midnight tomorrow night
[Wednesday 3rd of October] in the following NSW Fire Areas: 

Far North Coast, North Coast,
Greater Hunter, New England,
Illawarra/Shoalhaven, Far South Coast,
Central Ranges, Southern Ranges, Monaro Alpine
Northern Slopes, Northwestern,
Upper CW Plains, Lower CW Plains,
Southern Slopes, Eastern Riverina, Northern Riverina,
Greater Sydney Region,
ACT

Maximum temperatures are expected to be in the upper-20s to mid-30s across the region. More threatening is the wind, which is predicted to average up to 80 km/h in higher elevations, with even higher gusts. Further, dewpoints are currently quite low, and with the afternoon heating, relative humidities could be below 10%. There is the threat of new fires starting, as well as existing major fires at Port Stephens and Little Pittiwater Bay blowing out and expanding.

Off with a bang

October 1 traditionally marks the start of the fire season in many regions, especially in the eastern portions of NSW, around Sydney. Several stories today reported that it started with a flourish.

• Blaze ignites at Kuring-gai – ABC News

A bushfire is burning in the Kuring-gai National Park in northern Sydney.

The Rural Fire Service says eight crews are trying to contain the fire, which is in a fairly rugged area near West Head Road.

No properties are under threat.

• Homes destroyed in NSW bushfire – ABC News

Strong winds are hampering efforts to contain the fire which broke out this morning at Oyster Cove in the Port Stephens area and spread quickly, fanned by strong north-westerly winds.

The Rural Fire Service (RFS) says this afternoon the fire broke containment lines and destroyed two homes and a number of sheds at Tilligerry passage.

• Fireworks blamed for Bundeena fire – Illiwarra Mercury

FIREWORKS may have been used to start a fire that burned to within 500m of homes near Bundeena yesterday before being brought under control.

The fire was reported in the Royal National Park 10 minutes before the official start of the bushfire season at midnight on Sunday.

A broader story covering all these fires is in the Sydney Morning Herald. Some interesting quotes...

[NSW Fire Service spokesman Murray] Hillan said it was concerning to see such fires on the first day of the official bushfire season.

"What it shows us is a day of hot windy weather will bring on the bushfires."

"People might have thought that with the recent rain that we had that we might be in for a bit of respite.

"But I think, just one day of hot windy weather shows that bushfires are capable of starting up and moving on.

"We've had a lot of growth that has come with the rain, and with the drought the ground is dry and the moisture gets sucked up very, very quickly."

At the AWS Newcastle Nobbys, northwesterly winds with sustained speeds of 40-50 km/h were observed for much of the day. Temperatures were in the upper-20s, topping out at 30^oC and relatively humidities dipped down below 20% in the afternoon. A 'very high' fire danger day at the least...

Not a particularly auspicious start to the season...

Australian Bushfire Activity: 18-27 Sep 2007

Below is the latest 10-day hotspot composite from the NASA MODIS Rapid Response website. The dates of the composite are 18-27 September 2007.

The NT continues to experience large amounts of wildfire. A recent update on the activity in the Territory can be found here. The Gulf Country fires, the Tanami Desert fires and the eastern Arnhem Land fires noted previously are readily apparent on the hotspot composite. The growth of the fires over the 10-day period is also visible. The newer fires noted in the NT update are not present (or very small) in the composite image.

The fires in the Kimberley region are beginning to die down a bit, although four to five considerable areas of active fire remain throughout the Kimberley.

As in the previous composite, there is a region of hotspots in the Greater Weipa area of the Cape York Peninsula. These are more or less the same size as seen previously, suggesting that controlled burning in the area earlier has played an important role in containing these blazes.

Out to the west of Cairns and Mossman are two large bushfires, each on the order of 150 000 ha burnt. These seem to be diminishing in magnitude at this time. Some fires are also seen closer to Cairns over the last 10 days. A sugar mill was reported damaged in a fire south of Cairns, near Mulgrave. Other, smaller fires are noted in the near coastal areas up and down the north QLD coast.

In SE QLD and northern NSW, a broad area of widely scattered hotspots is seen. While most of these are generally small fires, perhaps agricultural burn-offs, some more concerted areas of wildfire have been noted in the Northern Tablelands of NSW. A fire ban was issued for the region on 19 September. Later in the 10-day period, lightning lit several fires in the Tenterfield area. There were nine active fires at one point. Most of these fires were a few thousand hectares or less. They have since been contained. There was also a report of a bushfire burning south of Brisbane which required water bombers and helicopters to contain. It burnt of the order of 100 ha.

Finally, a region of fire is noted in SE WA. This region is about 200 km ENE of Laverton, WA. It was noted as starting on the previous update. It is in a very remote region, and no information about it is readily avialable.

A few isolated hotspots are seen in other regions of the country.