Australia hit by el-Nino - high temperatures and early fire season

The el-Nino has hit Australia hard and quick. Just a couple of weeks ago this part of Australia was experiencing cold conditions. Now the weather has flipped to searing heat and bushfires. 

I hope the firefighters are home fсomfighting fires in the US northwest.

This weather has now hit the South Island of NZ.

One person missing in Victorian bushfires as temperature drops but wind persists

Hundreds of firefighters tackle blazes around central Victorian town of Lancefield spread by fierce heat and winds on Tuesday

the Guardian,

5 October, 2015

One person was missing as hundreds of firefighters battled to control bushfires across Victoria on Wednesday morning, with strong winds forecast to persist through the day.

Country Fire Authority crews believed the person might be trapped on either side of fires near the town of Lancefield.

Victoria Police said the missing Benloch man, in his 80s, had been “disconnected from his family”.

Bushfires threaten hundreds of homes in central Victoria

More than 100 fires blazed across Victoria on Tuesday as unprecedented heat approaching 40C in some areas and a ferocious north-westerly wind blasted the state, followed by a dry, blustery south-westerly change.

The worst fire, near Lancefield, forced hundreds of people to evacuate on Tuesday night. The blaze, sparked by an escaped controlled burn in tinder dry forest, was threatening 200 homes late on Tuesday and had destroyed at least one along with numerous outbuildings as it scorched 2,500 hectares.

An emergency warning was issued for Benloch, Pastoria East and Baynton East after the Lancefield fires spread north overnight.

A deputy incident controller, Lee Gleeson, said more than 200 firefighters had worked overnight but there could be more than 400 on the scene by Wednesday morning.

“Unfortunately, we’re expecting strong winds all day again, 40 to 60km/h winds from the south and the south-east all day,” he said.

Two firebombing aircraft from Sydney and Canberra could join the fight, he said.

Greg Murphy from the Cobaw fire incident control centre said on Wednesday morning crews would be in for a tough day.

“There’ll be lower temperatures but still quite fresh winds of 40-60 kilometres per hour,” he said. “It won’t be an easy day but by no means will it be as difficult as yesterday was.

“We’ll have a better chance today of getting on top of these conditions.”

Murphy said no further houses had been lost overnight but the number might rise on Wednesday.

“We spent a considerable amount of time yesterday engaged in property protection,” he said. “We’re working hard with road assessment to open roads up as soon as possible. People obviously want to get back to their properties.”

Temperatures reached 36C in Melbourne on Tuesday but the city was expecting a top of just 17C on Wednesday.

The federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, has written to the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, to demand an explanation about how the controlled burn got out of control, according to a spokeswoman for Hunt.

Spring bushfires widespread in Victoria

Home owners have grabbed garden hoses to save their properties from a bushfire south-west of Geelong in one of many blazes that swept the state today.  

Geelong is close to Melbourne

Sweltering temperatures in Sydney and elsewhere

And this is Kimberley in Northern Australia

PART 3: Build up to the monsoon nth Australia, Kimberley burning. it is normal for fires up here in the north this time of year , But last year the monsoon failed as the rains were well below average, Making this fire very dangerous. my link geoffwgreen.weebly.com
Posted by Geoff Green on Tuesday, 6 October 2015