Damaging winds and hot, dry conditions are expected to fuel extreme fire danger across Victoria, south-west New South Wales, and eastern Australia on Thursday.
Damaging winds will exacerbate extreme fire danger on Thursday as hot and dry weather affects large parts of Victoria, south-west New South Wales and much of eastern Australia. Winds reaching up to 100km/h could topple trees and power lines, resulting in minor power outages, according to the Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Dean Narramore. A high-pressure trough that brought temperatures into the high 30s to South Australia on Christmas Day is slowly moving across the border to Victoria.
Total fire bans have been declared for South Australia’s Mid North, Riverland, Murraylands, Upper South East and Lower South East regions. The dangerous conditions could intensify an out-of-control bushfire in Victoria’s Grampians National Park, which has been burning for days and covers over 40,000 hectares. Victoria State Control Centre spokesman Luke Hegarty urged residents in the Grampians, The Gurdies, Bullengarook, and Creswick to prepare their bushfire survival plans. “If you choose to leave these areas of elevated risk, go on the night of December 25, or no later than 10am on December 26, before the extreme fire danger conditions begin,” he said. Residents in the Grampians towns of Bornes Hill, Moyston and Pomonal were also ordered to evacuate on Wednesday as the blaze approached. Narramore said the combination of strong winds, high temperatures and dry air created dangerous fire conditions. “Any fire that does ignite or is already burning around the Grampians will likely be uncontrollable and uncontainable, leading to dangerous and erratic fire behavior,” he said. Firefighters from multiple states have been deployed to assist their Victorian colleagues as crews work to establish containment lines on Boxing Day, which is predicted to bring the worst conditions since the 2019 Black Summer. Power provider AusNet warned customers that power cuts could occur to prevent bushfires from starting, and outages might last longer to ensure safety
FIRE DANGER VICTORIA AUSTRALIAN BUSHFIRES WEATHER WARNING HIGH-PRESSURE SYSTEM
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