Fire Conditions Update, 6 January 2014.

We've made it to the start of January and we've seen reasonably cool weather across Victoria. That's the fact that we've had low pressure systems, so weather low pressure systems moving across Victoria over the last number of days. And not only has it brought cool weather, we saw on Sunday it also brought significant winds across the southern part of Victoria and also in northern Victoria. So it's been an interesting time. It's been cooler, it's been quite pleasant weather in some respects not conducive to major fires moving though the landscape. This week the weather forecast is clear now that we'll see a weather high pressure system move back across Victoria and that will see temperatures increase into the mid and higher thirties in the northern part of the state so it'll be more pleasant weather. But there's no forecast of significant wind with that high pressure system so for that reason the forecast would see that the fire danger ratings will stay in the very high area for most of the week. But we should say that people still need to be attuned to daily fire danger ratings for their district to understand if we get hotter weather or we get windier weather that the fire danger ratings may increase. So still stay attuned to your local conditions but the forecast would say that it's still very much nice hot weather without a lot of wind. The bureau have also been very clear that we've moved back into a cycle now of high pressure systems so this four day high pressure system will be in place and we'll see the weather warm up. It will be followed by two other high pressure systems so we expect now to see warmer weather across Victoria moving through most of January which is welcomed but also brings that higher risk of fire if winds are attached. I suppose the key message for this week to still stay attuned to your fire rating for your district. There's still a lot of people out there that are either in holiday mode, so they're out camping or away on holidays somewhere in Victoria whether it be in the northern parts or on the coast and that brings the fact that people are on the road so those that are travelling need to be very attuned to where they're going to, make sure they understand the fire danger rating along the way and also their destination. And make sure when you get to that holiday location that you actually develop your plan, because it's somewhere new, somewhere different. Just get attuned to the local conditions and understand what might happen, what will happen if a fire occurred in your area. So still stay attuned to fire but we're certainly not in the highest risk of fire this week. But we're still seeing that fires have occurred late in the afternoon, short run fires that are putting up a lot of smoke and moved around the environment. That's not to say we won't have fires, it's just that we'll see fires that are not as intense as those significant days. I think that's the key message for this week. Stay safe, enjoy what is going to be a warm week but a week that will hopefully be very enjoyable in Victoria.