Fed: "Particularly bad" bushfire season coming: experts
By Cathy AlexanderTue Sep 15 04:42:48 EST 2009
Mon Sep 14 18:42:48 UTC 2009
CANBERRA, Sept 14 AAP - A bad bushfire season is on the way.
Top bushfire experts have warned of a "particularly bad" risk this summer - worse than the risk was last season, when 173 people died in Victorian blazes.
The states most at risk for the coming season are Victoria, NSW and South Australia.
"This is the highest risk we've seen; this is particularly bad," said Gary Morgan, chief executive of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).
Bushfires hit the NSW south coast this August and September - an unusually early start.
Protracted drought plus forecasts of a hot spring, partly due to a building El Nino weather pattern, are behind the grim bushfire forecast. It was issued on Monday by the CRC.
Mr Morgan urged people to begin work on combating the risk.
"We're encouraging people to be prepared for the coming summer."
Victoria, which has been hit hard by the drought, is expected to have an early, bad fire season.
The forests of the Dandenong Ranges, the Otway Ranges, the Grampians, the Macedon-Bendigo corridor, East Gippsland and the water catchments of Melbourne are of "particular concern".
Poor winter rains over southern NSW and the ACT, combined with a warm mid-range forecast, explain the high fire danger there.
Dry conditions and abundant grass growth have given rise to a high fire risk across southern South Australia.
And it's not just Australia's south-east corner which is at risk of bushfires.
Eastern Queensland and the south-west corner of Western Australia are also rated at "above normal" bushfire risk.
Tasmania gets a reprieve - a very wet winter is tipped to keep the blazes away.
