Fire Season 2009

[scanSydney]

Seems like a big uncontained fire is burning away in difficult terrain. 600ha according to myRFS and still going. Picking it all up in Northern Sydney on 467.475 (Hill Top) - great quality. 12 helicopters are committed to it at the moment. Singleton seems to be slowing down, the latest fire map shows it's burning out, staying within containment, so there's some good news.

[astro_boy]

Do you know if there is a stream covering the channels ?
Doubt i could get it from so far up the coast.

[Farsouthscanner]

Here is a stream I found covering RFS in the area, copy and paste into Media Player http://220.233.100.32:8200
There is a small fire west of Moruya further south, if its not blacked out before the next lot of hot weather it could be serious.
Mark

[aircadet]

78.750mz NPWS is also very active with the southern highlands fire...

Cheers

[scanSydney]

Looks like most fire activity around Sydney is dying down. The Wingecarribee fire is still chugging along, but latest sitrep I heard over the radio was that there was light drizzle and the flame height was very small. Hopefully they can contain it before the bad weather visits next week. Wednesday's forecast is looking at 37.

[frankc]

If you think the weather for Fires is bad in NSW, here are the Fire Weather Warnings for WA for Tomorrow.

IDW15000
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
Western Australia
FIRE WEATHER FORECAST FOR THE SOUTHWEST LAND DIVISION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Issued at 3:35pm WDT on Thursday the 15th of January 2009
Valid for Friday
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CENTRAL WEST:
MAX MIN WIND FIRE FIRE
TEMP RH% TIME PERIOD (Km/h) INDEX DANGER
COASTAL: 44 10 AM NE 35 65 EXTREME

PM SW 40
Comments: Winds WNW 25 late morning to early afternoon.
INLAND: 46 7 AM NE 35 86 EXTREME

PM SW 40
Comments: Winds NW 25 late morning to mid afternoon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
LOWER WEST:
MAX MIN WIND FIRE FIRE
TEMP RH% TIME PERIOD (Km/h) INDEX DANGER
COASTAL: 40 15 AM NE 40 57 EXTREME

PM SW 35
Comments:
INLAND: 41 11 AM NE 40 53 EXTREME

PM SW 35
Comments:
METRO COASTAL PLAIN: 40 15 AM NE 40 59 EXTREME

PM SW 35
Comments:
METRO HILLS: 41 11 AM NE 40 60 EXTREME

PM SW 35
Comments:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CENTRAL WHEATBELT:
MAX MIN WIND FIRE FIRE
TEMP RH% TIME PERIOD (Km/h) INDEX DANGER
MORTLOCK: 43 9 AM NE 40 60 EXTREME

PM NW 20
Comments:
AVON: 43 9 AM NE 40 67 EXTREME

PM NW 20
Comments:
NINGHAN: 41 8 NE 37 46 VERY HIGH

PM NNE 20
Comments:
JILBADGIE: 41 9 AM NE 37 48 VERY HIGH

PM NNE 22
Comments:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
GREAT SOUTHERN:
MAX MIN WIND FIRE FIRE
TEMP RH% TIME PERIOD (Km/h) INDEX DANGER
UPPER: 42 10 AM NE 30 53 EXTREME

PM N 24
Comments:
BEAUFORT: 38 13 AM NE 35 41 VERY HIGH

PM N 23
Comments:
ROE: 40 10 AM NE 35 43 VERY HIGH

PM NNE 23
Comments:
LAKES: 39 10 AM NE 28 32 VERY HIGH

PM NNE 23
Comments:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SOUTHWEST:
MAX MIN WIND FIRE FIRE
TEMP RH% TIME PERIOD (Km/h) INDEX DANGER
COASTAL: 37 17 AM NE 33 35 VERY HIGH

PM W 20
Comments:
INLAND: 39 13 AM NE 35 34 VERY HIGH

PM WNW 20
Comments:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SOUTH COASTAL:
MAX MIN WIND FIRE FIRE
TEMP RH% TIME PERIOD (Km/h) INDEX DANGER
STIRLING COASTAL: 35 18 AM NNE 35 32 VERY HIGH

PM E 30
Comments: Winds E/SE 30 on the coast in the PM.
STIRLING INLAND: 38 14 AM NNE 35 37 VERY HIGH

PM NNE 25
Comments:
OLDFIELD COASTAL: 36 18 AM NE 30 35 VERY HIGH

PM E 30
Comments: Winds E/SE 35 on the coast in the PM.
OLDFIELD INLAND: 38 11 AM NE 35 35 VERY HIGH

PM NE 25

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDW15000.txt

[Farsouthscanner]

Hi all
Yesturday lightning started some fires near the Vic boarder. These have all been contained and mostly blacked out.
This afternoon lightning started more fires mainly close to the Vic border. None of these fires a large at this stage There are at least 2 or 3 down there, I am not sure how contained they are.
A chopper was water bombing at least one of them until it got too dark.
There is also a fire west of Moruya (about there anyway) and north of the Kings Highway closer to Batemans Bay. There was 3 choppers at a base set up near Braidwood for them
Severe storms are forecast for tomorrow again with higher temps.
Mark

[Farsouthscanner]

Hi all
There are currently 2 or 3 fires in the Eurobodalla area. One is closer to Braidwood and has had Helitak226, 256 and ParkAir 3 doing water bombing and RAF team work. The other is closer to Moruya and has destroyed a farm house. No one was at home at the time.
The fires in the Bega Valley are now being contained and some are blacked out. State Forests have extinguuished and blacked out and patroled several today and the following choppers have done water bombing ? 333, Firebird 314, ? 304, Helitak 294, there was mention of some bombers being in the area but I didn't hear them. They were getting fuel from Delegate and Cann River, they were going to cut a helipad into the bush but they couldn't get fuel there anyway. The were using 132.550 as their air channel, I couldn't hear much from them though due to distance. They were being co ordinated from Bombala fire control who was on the NP freq.
The S44 fire north of the Kings Highway got support from the RFS units near by. The ones I can think of are Batemans Bay, Longbeach, Surfbeach, Mogo. They did property protection and set up a forward stageing area at Nelegen Caravan Park.
Mark

[Farsouthscanner]

Hi all
Just thought I would give everyone a quick update on the fires down this way.
From north to south
The S44 fire near Batemans Bay is still going. NPWS were checking fire trail gates yesterday as a precaution for a fall back line probably in case it jumps the Kings Highway.
The Left Hand Creek fire is contained and mostly blacked out a far as I know, the chopper pilots had poor visibility due to low cloud and fog yesterday morning but I think it cleared in the afternoon. The fire near Moruya is out as far as I know.
The two fires near the Vic boarder are contained and crews on the ground a directing the helicopters to the hotspots for water bombing.
The new fire near Whyndham is still going, its not burning too fearcely. Its in rocky terrain so they couldn't cut a helipad near by. The main staging area is at the Whyndham oval. NPWS crews have been inserted by chopper and the choppers are going to start water bombing it again today. Park Air 3 is on scene, it was at the Left Hand Creek fire a couple of days ago so must have been re deployed.
There have been fires at Bemboka and Nelegen but these have been extinguished.
It is suppose to be hot to stink'n hot this week so they will have the containment lines tested, at least there is no lightning forecast.
Mark

[Farsouthscanner]

Hi all
Just a quick update on the fires in the far south area
I am not sure about the S44 north west of Batemans bay, I haven't heard anything about that one today.
The fires west of Moruya are contained and pretty much all blacked out, these shouldn't be a problem.
The fires down at the boarder are contained and the last hotspots were being water bombed today. These shouldn't be a problem.
The fire south of Whyndham is now 11ha and still going. NPWS have had crews on the ground all day and have been water bombing it all day. There are fixed wing bombers from Jindabyne in the area and they are being based at Merimbula airport. I don't know their call signs as yet. Some of the fire is being contained but there are a lot of hotspots and the fire is still going on at lest 2 edges. They have put retardant down which is only just slowing the fires down a bit. The wind toady has been very light on the fire ground so if it gets a bit windy it will take off in a hurry. They are calling in more ground crews tomorrow and more aircraft. They are also now planning fall back lines.
I will be back at work from holidays tomorrow so I will miss all the updates .
Don't forget the audio stream has RFS on it as well as NSWFB. Unfortunately I can't receive NPWS on it with my current aerial setup.
Mark