Posts
There has been a busfire near Perth. Temperatures have, however, been slightly cooler over Australia
Hundreds
fight bushfire near Perth
In Australia, an out-of-control bushfire is raging north-east of Perth, threatening dozens of homes.
11
January, 2015
Up to 200 firefighters are fighting the blaze in Bullsbrook, a semi-rural area about 40 kilometres from Perth, the ABC reported.
The
fire was reported at 9.20am AWST (2.30pm NZDT) on Saturday and 5500
hectares had been burned by 9.15pm AWST (2.15am NZDT).
Strong
winds and hot conditions fuelled the fast-moving blaze, threatening
homes and livestock with flames burning higher than rooftops at one
stage.
There
are unconfirmed reports that homes have been destroyed, while the
Department of the Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) said more than
100 properties have been saved.
According
to the latest official advice, the bushfire has reduced in intensity
and has been downgraded, but authorities said it was still burning
out of control and was unpredictable.
About 100 people took shelter in an evacuation centre at Quinns Road, north of Perth, overnight.
Overnight,
the bushfire was moving at more than two kilometres per hour in a
north-westerly direction. It had jumped containment lines and was
burning in the Gnangara Pine Plantation towards Wanneroo Road.
Ross
Delaney from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES)
said on Saturday that there were some areas where the fire was
reigniting as fire crews tried to move quickly to the front of the
blaze.
"It's
very hot, very windy, the fire's very fast moving and difficult to
contain," Mr Delaney said.
He
said DFES was hoping that the wind would drop and the humidity would
rise overnight so firefighters would have a better chance of gaining
control of the fire.
The
DFES said the cause of the fire was unknown and the arson squad was
investigating.
'It really snuck up on us'
Evacuated
Bullsbrook resident Todd Adkins said the fire was upon them without
warning.
"It
really snuck up on us and just really caught us off guard, and it was
really hard to get out," he said.
"We'd
all obviously seen it but it just went a lot faster than I thought it
would.
"You
couldn't see, you couldn't breathe, and to try and drive out we had
to drive through fire and everything. It was bad."
A
rescue helicopter was sent to the Great Northern Highway after a fire
truck reportedly rolled and hit a tree, a St John Ambulance
spokesperson said.
Two
people are believed to have been injured and one person was trapped
in the wreckage.
One
person would be flown to hospital for treatment, the spokesperson
said.
Multiple fire alerts
On Saturday, an emergency warning was issued for an area in the north-western part of Bullsbrook. That night, strike teams had been organised to protect more heavily populated areas.
The DFES said people in affected areas needed to act immediately and were advised to leave if the way was clear.
DFES also issued a watch and act alert for people in Nowergup, Ridgewood, Butler, Emerald Valley and Quinns Rocks.
People in affected areas were advised to leave if the way was clear, or prepare to defend their property.
Relief
unlikely in South Island - MetService
Eastern
parts of the South Island, which are on the verge of a drought,
probably will not benefit from heavy rain over Fiordland and the West
Coast, MetService says.
11
January, 2015
The South Island had well-below normal rainfall last month, with some farmers in Otago already selling off their stock in anticipation of drought.
MetService
had predicted heavy rainfall for the West Coast today.
But
forecaster Mads Naeraa-Spiers said it was unlikely to spread to
eastern areas.
"This
is driven by very moist north-westerlies and the Southern Alps act as
a complete barrier for much of this rain so it doesn't really make it
over to the east, where they really could do with some now."
Mr
Naeraa-Spiers said a few light showers were possible on Tuesday and
Friday, although not enough to break the near-drought conditions.
Water short in Dunedin
The
dry weather has forced the Dunedin City Council to ask residents to
conserve water.
The
council said water levels in the area's river tributaries were
dropping and people should only use water for necessities until there
was rain.
Metservice
said Dunedin had received less than one millimetre of rain since New
Year's Day.
The
city's average January rainfall is 83 millimetres.
The
council said if some residents wanted to water their gardens, they
should use a hand-held hose, not a sprinkler, and do it after 8pm at
night.
Climate
information for New Zealand
Prepared
by Kristy Lewis, Sydney, with thanks
Overall,
2014 ended up looking ‘about average’ with respect to temperature
for many parts of New Zealand.
The exception was the north-eastern
parts of both Islands, which were warmer than usual, as well as
between Whanganui and Wellington.
Tauranga, Napier and Nelson
experienced their third warmest year. But the year was actually a
roller-coaster of temperatures, swinging from unusually cold to
extremely warm, and back again.
This was influenced by the wamer than
usual SST surrounding NZ.Sea-surface temperatures around New Zealand
were higher than normal throughout the year, which combined with the
northerly flow anomaly will have contributed to the warm mean air
temperatures observed throughout the country in 2014.(NIWA,2014)
New
Zealand is Warming.Mean annual temperature for New Zealand,
calculated from NIWA's 'seven-station' series. This series uses
climate data from seven geographically representative locations. The
data are adjusted to take account of factors such as different
measurement sites. The blue and red bars show the difference from the
1971-2000 average. The black dotted line is the linear trend over
1910 to 2010 (0.96°C/100 years). [NIWA
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.