Dry spring sparks bushfire outlook update

Across south eastern Australia, spring has been unseasonably dry and with the expectation of a hot and dry summer the bushfire seasonal outlook for 2014-15 has been re-examined for Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

This has resulted in an update to the Southern Australia Seasonal Bushfire Outlook. View the new Outlook here.

This new edition, released as Hazard Note 003, replaces the previous Outlook for these three states, published as Hazard Note 002 in September 2014.

The significant change in this Outlook is that more parts of south eastern Australia are now expected to experience above normal fire conditions. In these areas, it is more likely that the resources required to fight bushfires from within a region will be insufficient, with resources required from other areas of an affected state, interstate and possibly overseas.

Record October warmth across much of southern Australia has caused a rapid drawing of moisture from the landscape which is raising expectations of high fire danger in the south eastern states.

This has increased the bushfire potential in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania sufficiently to warrant the updating of the national perspective. The above map reveals the updated bushfire outlook for southern Australia through to 2015. This map has been combined with the outlook for the northern fire season from July 2014, to show the areas of fire potential for all of Australia in 2014-15 (see Hazard Note 001).

View the full updated Southern Australia Seasonal Bushfire Outlook here.