Calls for bushfire vigilance in eastern Australia follow hot December forecast

 NSW emergency services fight a fire near Port
Stephens in November. Forecasts of a hot
December underscore the need for ‘extreme
vigilance’ according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Eastern Australia is in for a hot, dry December that will keep firefighters on their toes, forecasters say.

The Bureau of Meteorology has just released its latest outlook for summer, with good and bad news when it comes to the bushfire threat.

Australia had its second wettest winter on record this year, with above average rainfall continuing into spring. The good rainfall means there’s lots of water in eastern rivers and streams, helping them act as natural fire breaks.

Soils are also nice and damp, says Andrew Watkins, from the bureau’s climate prediction team. But the rain has also resulted in heavy vegetation growth that could fuel fires when it dries out in the hotter- and drier-than-average conditions now being forecast for December

Read The Guardian story - “Calls for bushfire vigilance in eastern Australia follow hot Decemberforecast.”

(Dr Karl Braganza, the Manager of Climate Monitoring at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, will present the bureau’s 2016 State of the Climate on Thursday at the University of Melbourne’s Lab-14).