Fires in Australia
Fires in Australia
12 January 2007
Fires in Victoria
Rivers of smoke up to 50 kilometers (31 miles) wide poured fromburning areas in Victorias Great Dividing Range Mountains on 11 January2007, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite passed overheadand captured this image. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires areoutlined in red. Many fires were burning dangerously close to Lake Thomson, theprincipal source of water for the city of Melbourne (beyond the western edge ofthe image).
According to news reports on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Website,a change in winds overnight between January 11 and 12 eased the fire threatsomewhat, but both stock and pasture were lost to flames in previous days. Themoderated conditions allowed firefighters to conduct backburns (controlled burnsof areas in the path of the wildfires) and build containment lines. Still, thedanger of these fires, some of which have been burning in the region since earlyDecember 2006, remains high.
AQUA
11 January 2007
Hundreds of thousands of hectares (1 hectare is about 2.5 acres) have beenburned in Victoria since late 2006. Extremely dry, windy, and hot conditions inthe region since spring have kept the fire danger extreme across much of theregion for weeks at a time. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology,extreme fire conditions in the area are more common during years when El Niñoevents occur. During the fall and early winter (2006-2007), an El Niño likelyinfluenced the areas climate. However, according to the Bureaus mostrecent (January 10, 2007) update, the ongoing El Niño appeared to be weakening,which they said bodes well for a switch towards wetter conditions acrossAustralia sometime in the late summer or autumn.
The high-resolution image provided above has a spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel.
The current situation in Australia is covered by a number of detailedreports (see GFMC Media web page):
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Crews contain Mt Bold bushfire (published by www.abc.net.au, 12 January 2007)
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Fires and global warming threaten river (published by www.theaustralian.news.com.au, 12 January 2007)
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Home feared lost in Victoria (published by www.news.com.au, 12 January 2007)
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Day of reckoning for towns facing bushfire threat (published by www.thewest.com.au, 11 January 2007)
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Government bushfire response ‘pathetic’ (published by www.theaustralian.news.com.au, 10 January 2007)
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Gippsland fires (published by www.skynews.com.au, 10 January 2007)
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Bushfires: Vic burns while NSW clouded by smoke (published by batemansbay.yourguide.com.au, 9 January 2007)
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Threat to bushfire research (published by wimmera.yourguide.com.au, 9 January 2007)
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Town stocks up as fire nears (published by www.news.com.au, 9 January 2007)
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CFA to keep eye on swamp fires (published by www.abc.net.au, 9 January 2007)
Further Information on the Fire Situation in Australia:
SA Country Fire Service http://www.cfs.org.au/ Near-Real Time Wildland Fire Monitoring https://gfmc.online/current/au_ciro.htm Current weather situation, forecasts, fireweather http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/tas/ More Information on Australian Fires IFFN country notes Department of Sustainability and Environment
http://www.nre.vic.gov.au/fires/index.htm
Tasmania Fire Service
Further Information Australian and New Zealand links. Background information Recent Media Highlights on Fire, Policies, and Politics