Extreme fire danger risk for south-east Australia

Australian Community Media

Temperatures and wind speeds likely to pick up rapidly around South Australia and Victoria, throughout the day on Thursday February 29, 2024.

Transcript

00:00 Extreme to catastrophic fire dangers being driven by a cold front moving

00:04 through southeastern parts of the country. We can see that here in the

00:08 satellite image with this white area showing a cloud band moving into western

00:12 parts of Victoria and that brought a cool change earlier this morning to Adelaide.

00:16 We had a very hot night there when most of the night was above 30 degrees but

00:20 that cool change is now starting to move into far western parts of Victoria. Now

00:24 there's two impacts of this cloud band. One, it's going to limit temperatures

00:28 during the late morning and early afternoon period into those high 20s to

00:32 low 30s but once that does start to move further eastwards and this clearer air

00:36 over South Australia moves over Victoria we're likely to see temperatures rise

00:40 rapidly and also the wind speeds pick up as well and that's of concern for our

00:45 areas that are already the ongoing fires to the northwest of Ballarat and because

00:49 of these hot dry windy conditions extreme to catastrophic fire dangers are

00:54 forecast through much of eastern South Australia and also parts of western and

00:58 central Victoria including this red area here where we're expecting catastrophic

01:03 fire dangers through parts of the Wimmera. So what these colours mean, if

01:07 you live in these areas, that if fires do get going or are currently going to the

01:12 northwest of Ballarat, fires will become uncontrollable and uncontainable during

01:17 this afternoon and evening during these hot and gusty winds. Then that wind shift

01:21 late afternoon and evening could cause further concerns for any ongoing fires

01:25 and dry lightning could also ignite new fires. So please if you live in the

01:30 western and central parts of Victoria, it is important to stay up to date the

01:34 latest forecasts and warnings and listen to all advice from your local emergency

01:38 services. Now let's time this front out during this afternoon. We're going to see

01:42 it start moving into the far western parts of Victoria around that lunchtime

01:46 hour with all that cloud and possible showers ahead of that and while the wind

01:51 isn't cool initially, we will see further cooler winds further back. Now as that

01:55 front continues to move slowly eastwards by the mid-afternoon hour, we'll start to

02:00 see that wind shift moving into western parts of the state with temperatures

02:04 really starting to pick up ahead of and near that change. Then as we move into

02:08 the late afternoon and evening, we'll start to see that change move into

02:12 central parts of the state including around the Melbourne metropolitan area

02:16 in that late evening into the early overnight period. Then as we move through

02:20 overnight tonight, we'll see that front move through eastern Victoria and parts

02:24 of Tasmania bringing those gusty winds and cooler conditions. Then our focus

02:28 tomorrow shifts into New South Wales where we see temperatures pick up into

02:32 the high 30s to low 40s including around the Sydney area where we could get

02:36 temperatures there into the mid 30s. While note through parts of Tasmania and

02:40 much of southern Victoria and South Australia, temperatures anywhere from 10

02:44 to 12 degrees cooler than what they are today. But how much rainfall are we

02:49 expecting with this front? Well very little if any. So we're looking as that

02:53 moves into western parts of Victoria later today, so there's light areas of

02:58 blue there, could see some isolated showers and thunderstorms but most of

03:03 that won't be reaching the ground and that's why we're concerned about dry

03:06 thunderstorms in this area that could ignite new fires. But as we move into the

03:11 late afternoon and evening, that threat will move across the state but more

03:15 maybe widespread shower activity through parts of Tasmania but note little if

03:18 any across Victoria and New South Wales. But as we move into Thursday we could

03:23 see more widespread activity. So for those that live in western and central

03:27 parts of the state or if you know anyone that does, make sure you stay up to date

03:31 with the latest forecasts and warnings via our website, app and social media and

03:35 listen to all advice from your local emergency services.

03:40 (gentle music)

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