Victoria bushfires: What we know so far
We’re wrapping up our live coverage of the bushfires in Victoria. Here are the day’s main updates:
Victoria has faced one of its most dangerous fire days in years, with authorities evacuating people from areas in central and western regions as fires continue to rip through the state.
A fire that has been raging in the Grampians area for more than a week has burnt through 55,000 hectares of land. Emergency management commissioner, Rick Nugent, has warned “considerable environmental damage” has been done and while no houses have been lost yet, he “wouldn’t be surprised” if houses were lost through this fire.
A cool change moving into western Victoria will be approaching the Grampians fire zone on Thursday evening, with warnings from the Bureau of Metereology this could lead to “erratic and dangerous fire behaviour”.
Emergency services have issued “Take Shelter Now” warnings for parts of the state, telling those who had not previously left that it was now unsafe to do so, and they should take shelter – ideally indoors. A full list of those areas, as well as those with “Leave Immediately” warnings, is here.
The dangerous fire conditions are likely to continue in Victoria until Saturday and authorities have urged people to closely monitor the Vic Emergency app, their local radio stations and to be ready to act as soon as directions are given.
Our coverage of the bushfires in Victoria and fire threat in other states will continue tomorrow. Good night.
Updated
Strong westerly winds could lead to ‘dangerous fire behaviour’ before cool change, BoM says
Dean Narramore, senior meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology said the cool change was moving into western Victoria and would be approaching the Grampians fire zone within the next hour or so.
That’s going to change the wind from a strong northerly to a strong westerly, which will probably lead to erratic and dangerous fire behaviour.
The cold front moving through southern Australia meant Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia could look forward to temperatures in the 20s after getting into the 40s today.
It would be a hot day in NSW tomorrow, he said, but the state would cool down by Saturday.
The heat in Queensland continues, but then [will] start to rebuild again in western parts of Western Australia on Sunday and Monday, then that heat will once again spread across the country on the 30th and the 31st in the lead-up to New Year’s Eve.
It was looking like a warm, dry New Year’s Eve across western and southern Australia, he said. Showers and storms were expected in the tropical north, and possibly around Sydney and Brisbane.
We’re not looking as hot as the current heat that we’re having. It’s probably looking more like widespread low to mid 30s, and inland areas getting into the high 30s to low 40s.
Updated
