Topic: Bushfires (wild fires) NSW 20th November 2006

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi Nick,

Just for clarification's sake, we are talking pressure levels rather than actual heights here. We can however attribute 850hPa would probably be approximately in the order of 1.5km. I attempted to get a good aerological diagram that had both pressures and heights listed on it but failed to find one. Anyone else do see one, feel free to attach an image of one on here.

well I found it actually:



Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[David C]

I attempted to get a good aerological diagram that had both pressures and heights listed on it but failed to find one. Anyone else do see one, feel free to attach an image of one on here

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

Don't know whether or not you consider them 'good' Jimmy, but any of the BoM soundings have this information  ???

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi David,

I had a limited period of time for searches. Strangely enough I did not consider them haha and they never showed up as you suggest in the google search for Australia. Nevetheless, the above sounding shows it.

Goes to show how often I utilise the BoM soundings haha or lack thereof.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Michael Bath]

Surely you guys know of this resource ?????

http://soundings.bsch.au.com/index.html

You can plot any date or get the current soundings, and the plots have the extra info on them.

MB

[nmoir]

RFS have reported many lightning started fires especially around mudgee , if people chasing in that area in the next couple of weeks i would expect some road closures.

Mid-Western Basin Creek South west of Mudgee 3 Bushfire activity 1 Being Controlled 29/11 : 05:09AM
Mid-Western The Ponds South west of Mudgee 3 Bushfire activity 1 Contained 29/11 : 05:00AM
Mid-Western Wallaby Rock South of Mudgee 3 Bushfire activity 5 Being Controlled 29/11 : 04:46AM
Mid-Western Mt Frome East of Mudgee GR 560829 3 Bushfire activity 5 Being Controlled 29/11 : 04:38AM
Mid-Western Bylong Complex 9Km West of Bylong

info from www.rfs.nsw.gov.au

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi Nick,

I was wandering why there was so much smoke around Mudgee! I sincerely hope there is not major road closures - stuff that.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[nmoir]

this afternoon 2 fires in the area have threatened homes and 3 of the fires have been declared section 44 bushfire emergencies , if you want to know about road closures i would suggest looking at thrta websites

[David Brodrick]

Just a regrettable note from Narrabri to say that now the Pilliga Forest is burning as well. Presumably the fire was started by lightning on Tuesday night. The sky here was black yesterday. The RFS has already had their hands full with another fire near Mt Kaputar and now this new fire in the forest has burned out 16000 Ha on its first day. GFS looks good for rain on the weekend, so fingers crossed.
My mate Chris and I got some great photos of the smoke column yesterday, hopefully Chris will offload them today.

[nmoir]

pilliga was burning last year too , and house was lost near Coonabarabran last night , rfs will be exhausted and the season has really only just begun

[David Brodrick]

The fire last year "only" burned out 6000Ha, this new fire is already 10K Ha larger than that - after one day.

[nmoir]

wow! it must have really cranked it up , last years fire was burning for about a week or more if i recall

the extended gfs on weatherzone.com.au shows that around the 8th of dec another nasty load of bushfire weather could be expected , this far out i guess it would be a little guesswork but it shows 3 days of it in arow  
 Question to forum. How conservative would these forcasts be this far out?

[David Brodrick]

Nick,
I was amazed and very impressed by your "pyrocumulus" photos the other day. I had never seen anything like it until yesterday with this fire burning in the forest. We would have had to drive right around to Baradine or somewhere to get the best photos, but even from our drive out towards Pilliga we could see some of the bright, white smoke clouds thousands of metres tall. We saw a jet fly over the area, I bet the passengers got a good eyefull of this fire.
We were out there a couple of weekends ago admiring the variety of life, we saw bettongs and wallabies and echidnas, goannas and all manner of things. And now this fire's on the loose, poor critters. At least the next week looks significantly cooler than the last week.
Dave

[David Brodrick]

Latest RFS update put the fire at over 100,000 Ha.
Bloody by jingo's! Poor bush creatures.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi David and Nick,

With so many storms and intense hot lightning strikes, it is just inevitable that many fires are lit up and perhaps merge into major blazes. I doubt I have seen a year where so many bushfires have been lit by lightning on such a scale. Usually storms are very rare in bushfire weather - the wrong combination I guess.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[David Brodrick]

Although I suspect they made a typo, maybe the fire is 10,000 Ha.