After one of the driest and warmest starts to spring on record, a number of bushfires sparked up in Western Sydney causing traffic chaos and burning at least 2 homes.
Warm and gusty north-westerly to westerly winds produced ideal conditions coupled with low humidity to create environments for rapid spread of fires. Fire fighters worked quickly to put out the blazes but it seemed some of the fires crossed containment lines quicker than they could set up.
Tonight, firefighters are frantically working on back burn operations to prevent further spread of fires over the coming days.
The bushfires weren't the only concerns today. Strong winds brought down trees and branches in some suburbs and areas of raised dust reduced visibility.
Longer term predictions has at the least a dry and very warm start to spring and this has raised extreme concerns for bad bushfire conditions. Widespread rains are desperately needed to ease conditions before the summer heat sets in.
Certainly some highly unusual weather activity especially the 30C days so early in the season. There have been two such days within the first 10 days of September something that I have not seen before. I also heard that parts of western Sydney has not seen rain for 35 days up until 13/9/2013. Its also been a warmer and drier July and August. It appears that one of the fires was caused by a burn off that had gone wrong. There is some good news that some rainfall, cooler conditions for the next days will help out.
Certainly some highly unusual weather activity especially the 30C days so early in the season. There have been two such days within the first 10 days of September something that I have not seen before. I also heard that parts of western Sydney has not seen rain for 35 days up until 13/9/2013. Its also been a warmer and drier July and August. It appears that one of the fires was caused by a burn off that had gone wrong. There is some good news that some rainfall, cooler conditions for the next days will help out.