Pyrocumulus north of Timbarra, Victoria, Australia. Murray King took the photo 30km west of the fire in Bindi, East Gippsland on January 25, 2019 at 5:30 p.m.
Murry King sent us this photo of the pyrocumulus cloud over a bushfire north of Timbarra, Victoria, Australia. He got the shot from a point 30km west of the fire in Bindi, East Gippsland on January 25, 2019 at 5:30 p.m.
Thanks Murry.
Here is the latest information about the fire from Vic Emergency:
This Advice message is being issued for Timbarra, Gillingall, Gelantipy, Butchers Ridge, W-Tree, Murrindal, Buchan and Buchan South.
There is an active bushfire north of Timbarra and Gillingall and west of the Gelantipy Road between Butchers Ridge and W-Tree that is not yet under control.
We have now started igniting a back burn on the south eastern corner of the fire near W-Tree, along Hodges Track and Dawson Track. If conditions are favourable, we will continue to extend the back burn later today.
There will be increased smoke in this area. Crews and machinery continue to strengthen containment lines around the fire perimeter.
Numerous bushfires are burning in the island state south of the Australia mainland
Satellite photo showing smoke streaming from the wildfires in Tasmania, January 29, 2019. The red dots represent heat. Click to enlarge.
Firefighters in Tasmania has been battling large bushfires for the last month and conditions are not improving. Several large air tankers and helicopters from the Australian mainland, as well as firefighters, have flown across the Bass Strait to provide assistance.
Below are excerpts from an article from ABC Australia published at about 6 a.m. PST US January 30:
Communities in the Central Plateau also remain on high alert with gusty winds pushing flames towards properties.
More than 500 firefighters are battling nearly 1,500 kilometres of fire fronts across Tasmania but the main fire fight is in the Huon Valley, south of Hobart.
The Tasmania Fire Service said the Huon Highway near Geeveston was expected to be impacted by fire tonight, with the possibility that communities further south could be cut off for an extended period of time.
Massive pyrocumulus cloud over a bushfire north of Timbarra, Victoria, Australia. TRFM photo.
Extreme heat on Friday in Victoria, Australia combined with strong winds and low humidity caused a bushfire 10 km (6 miles) north of Timbarra to grow from 300 hectares (740 acres) to approximately 10,522 hectares (26,000 acres). Lighting ignited the fire on January 16 and in an odd twist, extreme fire behavior Friday created hundreds of lightning strikes around a massive pyrocumulus cloud that rose to 38,000 feet while igniting additional fires.
The temperature at the top of the cloud was -55°C (-67°F) according to the Victoria Bureau of Meteorology.
Large bushfire in #EastGippsland producing a huge plume of smoke this afternoon stretching over eastern Bass Strait. Check out the satellite picture at https://t.co/9md40P2b4kpic.twitter.com/5ceZV5nf0T
Friday evening the weather changed substantially, bringing in cool, moist air that slowed the spread of the fire. Officials say due to the size and difficult topography, it will be weeks before it can be completely contained.
Satellite photo of smoke from wildfires in Tasmania, January 21, 2019. The red dots represent heat detected by the satellite. NASA & Wildfire Today.
Wildfires that have been burning for weeks in Tasmania, the southernmost state in Australia, continue to spread and affect properties and air quality on the island. Some of the blazes in the central part of the state are burning in deep-seated organic soil, peat, and are likely to keep burning through the Australian summer.
Below is an excerpt from Radio New Zealand:
The fires have been burning since late December, in the Gell River area, after a heatwave and a period of lightning strikes and high winds. The fires were burning across 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) of mountainous terrain.
Haze from bushfire smoke is blanketing several Tasmanian towns, with hot and dry conditions across the state and more than 30 blazes already burning setting the scene for a nervous few days.
South of Hobart, air quality monitoring data measured smoke particles at 8.00am as being at elevated levels, with Geeveston at 35 times that of Hobart. Residents living in the Huon Valley, where smoke from the bushfire at Gell River has filled the sky, posted on social media that many had not seen conditions as bad, with some mentioning 1967 as the only year which came close – the year of Tasmania’s worst fire disaster.
On Facebook, George Henry Ross asked locals if they had ever seen so much smoke haze around the valley.
“I can’t remember a summer like it,” he said, with many agreeing.
Eric Bat said he had been chatting with a bloke who did remember a summer like it: 1967.
“We rather hoped things have improved since then.”
Reinforcements are being sent to Tasmania from New South Wales, Queensland, and New Zealand.
At least two large air tankers from the Australian mainland are helping out.
And personnel, as well…
Additional personnel from #NSWRFS, @ACTRFS, @FRNSW and @NSWAmbulance have left Sydney for Tasmania this afternoon. They will assist with incident management and remote area firefighting functions as fires continue to burn across the Tasmanian wilderness. pic.twitter.com/OiEOqsdYxh
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) January 20, 2019
Sixteen remote area firefighters and incident management specialists left Sydney today for Tasmania. Firefighters from #NSWRFS and @OEHmedia, supported by @NSWAmbulance, will assist with the ongoing firefighting effort over the next few days. @TasFireServicepic.twitter.com/btETL4FkqE
15 of our best have made their way to #Tasmania this weekend to assist local crews battling blazes in intense heatwave conditions. ? It’s great to be able to repay our neighbours for the hard work they put in during Qld’s severe fires last year. ? @TasFireServicepic.twitter.com/WzWsh15lKW
Until today I have never heard of a bicycle igniting a vegetation fire. You would think that a road bike being used on a highway would be one of the modes of transportation least likely to start a wildfire.
It turns out, if that bike is modified with an after market wheel hub using a battery-powered electric motor all bets are off.
The battery. Image from 9News video.
On Monday 79-year old Gary Ryan was riding his Pinarello Dogma F8 retrofitted with an electric hub motor when the device caught fire on Corkscrew Road in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia (map). (The device may have been similar to this one.) After receiving a slight burn on his leg he got off the bike and watched as flames reported to be 10-feet high shot out of the battery. The fire partially melted the bike’s frame and spread into the vegetation along the highway. Mr. Ryan and other riders backed away as CO² cartridges exploded that he carried on the bike for inflating tires.
Firefighters that happened to be working on a fire nearby responded quickly and knocked the blaze down after it spread for about 100-feet.
Residents and emergency crews in Australia have been on edge for the last four days as they deal with record heat approaching 50C (122F) in some areas.
As more devices used out of doors are battery-powered we are going to be increasingly hearing about fires like this. Wildfire Today has already written about two vegetation fires that were started by drones.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Paula. Typos or errors, report them HERE.
Their Rx season is usually from early spring to early summer.
Smoke from a prescribed fire in the Warren Region of Western Australia. Screenshot from the Western Australia Parks and Wildlife Service video.
The prescribed burning season in the Warren Region of Western Australia usually winds down this time of the year during the early summer months. Their wildfire season typically extends from October to May.
The official designations of the seasons south of the equator in Australia are laid out like this:
Summer: December – February
Autumn: March – May
Winter: June – August
Spring: September – November
Map: Warren Region of Western Australia. Click to enlarge.
In addition to telling us about the prescribed burning video (below), Dr. Lachlan McCaw, Senior Principal Research Scientist with Western Australia’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, sent us an overview of of their prescribed burning program in the Warren Region:
The Region is situated in the southwest part of Western Australian and features extensive areas of native vegetation, including designated wilderness areas and the state’s tallest forests. The region is also home to iconic tourism destinations, a rich and diverse agricultural industry, and unique conservation values associated with the highest rainfall area of Western Australia.
Public lands within the region are managed by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions Parks and Wildlife Service and include 0.65 million hectares (1.60 million acres) of national parks and nature reserves, 0.25 million hectares (0.617 million acres) of state forest and timber reserves, and a lesser area of unallocated crown land and unmanaged reserves.
Southwest Western Australia has a Mediterranean type climate with warm dry summers and the fire season typically extends from October to May. Open forests and heathlands become dry enough to burn in early spring whereas tall dense forest types may retain moisture into the early months of the austral summer.
Prescribed fire is an important tool for land management in southwest Western Australia and in the Warren Region the annual burning program undertaken by the Parks and Wildlife Service may vary from 30,000 ha (74,000 a.) to 70,000 ha (172,000 a.). Prescribed burning is undertaken for a number of purposes including:
To mitigate the risk and severity of bushfires and assist in the protection of lives, property and infrastructure by reducing the build up of vegetation fuels;
To maintain biodiversity and habitat diversity;
To reestablish vegetation after timber harvesting and disturbance by mining operations;
To understand the behaviour of fire and its interactions with the environment.
