This morning the smoke was back - not as bad as it was a week or two ago, but it was here.

Over the past five or six days, winds have been from the sou'-west and swinging to the south so we've been smoke-free.

However, overnight the high pressure system moved further eastwards, bringing winds around to the sou'-east and thus moving smoke over here.

Although the fires have subdued somewhat due to a few millimtres of rain and cooler weather, they're still burning.

The weather forecast for the next week or so has more hot weather arriving (in the mid thirties) so that will mean the fires becoming stronger again.

A Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2007.

The link below takes you to a map showing the main towns and landmarks on the edge of the fire area.

As of 24-Dec-2006, approximately 800 000 hectares had been burnt. The current weather forecast is not predicting sufficient rain to extinguish these fires so they will burn for some time to come... and there are two more months of summer, so it could be April before all fires are completely extinguished. Of course, there will be lots of wind changes and hot days before then and towns and property will be threatened time and again.

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My Live Search Maps collection

Mansfield, Victoria, Australia

Merijig

Mount Buller
Ski resort. Been under threat at different times.

Tolmie

Whitfield

Cheshunt

Paradise Falls

Dandongadale
Control centre of the Great Divide Complex North which contains 50 fires which have burnt 344,000 hectares (to 24-Dec-2006).

Bright
Fires burnt out around this area in January 2003.

Mount Buffalo Chalet
Been under threat at different times. The Chalet is a heritage building.

Mount Beauty

Gaffneys Creek

Jamieson

Kevington
Site of the famous Kevington Hilton Hotel (also known as the Poplar Arms). Mt. Terrible is close and fires have been burning there for the past 3 weeks (as of 24-Dec-2006).

Woods Point
Been under threat several times.

Howqua
Been under threat several times, especially in the past week.

Eurobin

Licola
Has been under threat of the fires for the duration, thus far.

Valencia Creek
Been under threat several times.

Dargo, Gippsland



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The fires over at Mansfield, Whitfield, Jamieson, and surrounding areas, produced smoke on the water Basin all day today (Wed 13-Dec-2006), as well around Rushworth and other towns. There was just enough strength in the easterlies to bring plenty over. The forecast is that the winds will go around to the north - and that means higher temperatures .

Here's the sun trying to poke through this morning at about 0800:

Smoke from the bushfires to the east of Waranga Basin arrived overnight as a light wind went around to the south-east and east.

At about 6.30 am, the sun was blocked out and until 8.30 am when I left to travel the 10 km into Rushworth, the other side of the Basin could be seen. However, during the morning the smoke thickened in Rushworth itself as the wind dropped and on returning home at about 2 pm, the smoke had completely blocked out the other side of the Basin.

The photo below was taken at about 5.30 pm from the edge of the Basin about five minutes walk from my block. Visibility at that time was about 500 m at the most.

At the time of writing - 1915 - there's just the slightest breath of wind and the smoke haze is still thick.

Tomorrow the expected temperature is 40 degree C as the wind swings around to the north. Sunday's weather is prediced to be similar.

With no rain in the near future to slow down the fires, authorities expect some of the fires to join and create a firefront of 100 km.

Click the map below to go to Windows Live Maps. There are some pushpins where home is (about 150 km away from the fires) and major fires are burning around Whitfield in the Ovens Valley, Mansfield and Jamieson.