Authorities concerned about the effects of forecast wind changes on Victorian bushfires

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A change in weather conditions is anticipated in Victoria, which may bring relief for some, but danger in the form of spreading fires

Transcript

00:00We are looking at a cooler wind change coming through Western Victoria.

00:06It did cross the Victoria-South Australia border a couple of hours ago, and as we go

00:09to air right now, it is moving across the Grampians.

00:12But this is actually one of two wind changes that we're monitoring at the moment.

00:15So with this first wind change, we are seeing temperatures fall by between 5 to 10 degrees,

00:20including for the Grampians fire.

00:21But quite importantly, we are seeing quite a jump in humidity, which will help with the

00:25fire weather conditions, help to improve those.

00:28This wind change will move across the rest of Central Victoria, including Gisborne, between

00:32about 6 and 7pm tonight, and across Melbourne between 8 and 9pm.

00:36But as I mentioned, there is a second wind change coming through, and this will bring

00:39those stronger westerly winds as a strong cold front moves through.

00:42So this is the system that could bring wind gusts up to 90 kmh.

00:46It is due across the Grampians between 6 and 7 o'clock this evening, pushing across Central

00:50Victoria and Melbourne close to about 10 o'clock tonight.

00:52So we are expecting these very strong southwesterly winds coming through, and temperatures dropping

00:57even further back into the low to mid-20s.

00:59So even though we are expecting cool conditions tonight, those winds will really pick up later

01:03this evening.

01:04Over the last 24 hours or so, we have seen winds coming from the north, northwesterly

01:09direction, so threatening communities to the south of the fire.

01:12But as the wind change comes through, that's when of course the fire direction can change.

01:16So we do remind communities right across Victoria, especially through the Grampians and around

01:19the Gisborne area, to keep an eye on the latest updates from the Bureau and Vic Emergency,

01:24and of course follow all advice from local authorities.

01:26So if you are across South Australia and Victoria, we are expecting much cooler conditions

01:30heading into tomorrow.

01:31So Adelaide and Melbourne, looking at temperatures dropping back into the low 20s, but then that

01:35heat pushes into the ACT and New South Wales tomorrow.

01:38So we are expecting a scorcher across Sydney, getting up to 38 degrees in the city, up to

01:4341 degrees across western Sydney, 40 degrees for the Hunter.

01:46We are expecting of course, with that wind coming through, extreme fire danger for Sydney

01:50and the Hunter before a late cool change does come through.

01:54Then the heat will actually move into northeast New South Wales and southeast Queensland,

01:58including Brisbane over the weekend.

01:59So the heat very much tracking right across eastern Australia.

02:02Those vessels heading towards the south, they will have favourable, very strong north-north-easterly

02:07winds into tonight.

02:09They could potentially reach Gale 4, so we do have gale warnings right along the New

02:12South Wales east coast.

02:14But then into early Friday morning, that's when that wind change will come through.

02:17So we are expecting it to come through the far eastern parts of the Bass Strait and also

02:21the western parts of the Tasman Sea early on Friday morning.

02:24That will be quite an abrupt westerly change and we will see those strong wind warnings

02:27continue right down the coast of Tasmania.

02:30We could also see a few showers and thunderstorms in the early hours of the morning, but they

02:33will be quite isolated, but then very windy coming into Hobart tomorrow evening as the

02:38first vessels start to come through.

02:39If they do find themselves under thunderstorms, that's when you can get gusty winds coming

02:42from quite erratic directions.

02:44But the main wind change will be that westerly change coming through in the early hours of

02:47Friday morning.

02:48That will swing from very strong gale force north and north-easterly winds to strong westerly

02:53winds over quite a tight area.

02:55So that of course will be of concern to those sailors out there.

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