Fires in Australia
Fires in Australia
17 January 2007
Fires in Victoria
Victoria is in the grip of one of the worst bushfire crises in the state’s history.Fires that began in early December 2006 were still raging through the Great Dividing Range Mountains of eastern Victoria, Australia, on16 January 2007. This image of the region was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Terra satellite just before 11:00 a.m. local time. Places where MODIS detected actively burning fires are outlined in red. The forested mountains were green where they had not burned and deep brown where the fires had scorched them. Homes and livestock were lost near Tatong on16 January, when strong winds and high temperatures increased fire activity.
TERRA
16 January 2007
More than 700 tourists were today evacuated from one of the nation’s premier ski resorts after a fire burning out of control in Victoria crossed the border into NSW.Eight homes were lost last night and more are expected to burn today as scorching temperatures and northerly winds continue to fan blazes threatening small Victorian communities near Benalla and in East Gippsland.The same fire cut the main electricity inter-connector between Victoria and NSW, plunging hundreds of thousands of houses into darkness and affecting hundreds of traffic signals and suburban train services.
In the far east, the Great Divide South fire has expanded east towards the Great Alpine Road, threatening the tiny mountain communities of Brookville, Doctors Flat and Swifts Creek, near Omeo.A fire at Hermit Mountain, south-east of Corryong in the Upper Murray Valley, has grown to 840 hectares and remains out of control.
Heatwave continues
Hot temperatures are expected throughout the week. In fire areas today, temperatures in the mid to high 30s are predicted with 20-30kmh northerly winds this morning dropping to 10-15kmh in the afternoon.There will be isolated thunderstorms that might bring some rain but it is too hard to tell whether this would fall over fire affected areas.Winds will increase again late on Friday and into Saturday when temperatures areexpected to rise close to 40 degrees.
The large image provided above has a spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters perpixel.
The current situation in Australia is covered by a number of detailedreports (see GFMC Media web page):
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Fire heading for Thredbo (published by www.smh.com.au, 17 January 2007)
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Bushfire crisis worst ever: Bracks (published by www.theaustralian.news.com.au, 17 January 2007)
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Bushfire causes massive blackouts in Victoria (published by www.thewest.com.au, 16 January 2007)
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Rain helps douse forest fire (published by www.abc.net.au, 16 January 2007)
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Kiwi firefighters ready for big day across the Tasman (published by www.tv3.co.nz, 16 January 2007)
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Wildfire ravages national park (published by www.abc.net.au, 16 January 2007)
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Rare species escapes fire (published by the.standard.net.au, 15 January 2007)
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Survivors emerging from ruins of forest (published by the.standard.net.au, 15 January 2007)
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SOS call for American firefighters (published by www.theaustralian.news.com.au, 15 January 2007)
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Australian forest fires devour 1 million hectares (published by news.monstersandcritics.com, 14 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
