It is warming up in Australia.  Today we had a big fry up on the outskirts of Canberra.  The Pierces Creek Bushfire is believed to have been started from a burnt-out car.  With temperatures in the mid-30s (celcius) and gale force winds, the fire quickly spread and has now burnt out 147 hectares of bush and farmland.  The fire is not yet under control.

We were told that the blaze is unprecedented for this time of year.  Throughout the day, water-bombing planes flew overhead to deliver their load to the fire zone.  The city and surrounding hills were shrouded in a pall of smoke.

Grey Day

As if to compensate for the fear the fire aroused, the sun set in a blaze of glory.

sunset

At my place, the crested pigeons perfectly matched the colour scheme of the day.

Crested pigeon

Hopefully the fire crews will get a break tomorrow.  Our thoughts are with them.

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Kind Regards
Tracy

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58 thoughts on “Fry-day”

  3. Oh, no — I do hope this fire will not creep into the city of Canberra! Our fire season in California is now year-round — some of our worse fires have been in November!

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      1. Yes — we used to have one nasty fire a year — last year it seemed like at least one a week! The fires are hotter and faster, and they are feeding on drought-dried brush. We are hoping for a wet (but not drenching) winter!

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      3. It really depends upon where in California you are. In Northern California, it is cooler, and there are mountains that are snowy in the winter and generate water in spring thaws, thus rivers. In Southern California, where I live, there’s less snow, and we are truly in a desert. The droughts are more intense, and the heat is more intense. All the brush is currently dry — one small spark starts a fire (in fact one began this evening!) — and it is truly dangerous in many areas. In the summer, my eye is trained to scan the horizon at all times for signs of smoke! It’s a way of life!

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  6. I was wondering if that fire was affecting you in any way, Tracy. Stay safe…. It was an awful day here too, hot and very windy. But we were very lucky to snag a thunderstorm and 5 ml of rain.

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    1. That’s a decent bit of rain you got, Jane. We had a storm but hardly any rain. The fire is to the southwest of us and running south, so we are fine. The southern parts of Canberra are more at risk but containment strategies seem to be working. I’m hoping that Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve was spared. There are many animals in enclosures there so they can’t escape.

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  11. Here’s hoping those fires will be under control soon! Here in South Africa we’re also struggling with runaway veld and forest fires as the dry season comes to a close but the rainy season hasn’t quite kicked in yet… Thus far at least 8 human lives and thousands of hectares of vegetation have been lost.

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    1. Oh Dries, I am so sorry to hear of the devastating fires and the loss of life in South Africa. News of the tragedy has not filtered here. It makes sense that your country would have such wildfires given the climate is so similar to our own. The lack of water makes fire fighting so difficult.

      The wind is still gusting here but the temperature has dropped so this will help our fire fighting effort. Our fire-fighting authorities were on to it so quickly because they fear a repeat of the massive losses we had in 2003; the loss of life and number of houses lost were much the same as SA is experiencing now.

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  12. Saw the fires on the news and thought of you Tracy. Hope it is soon contained and the rain comes. It is so early for bush fires. Not looking good for summer… hot and windy here too

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  13. They do seem to start earlier every year. We’ve had wild winds all day today but with some rain in southern Tasmania where I live. There were fire alerts though, it doesn’t take much for a fire to take off in this type of weather.

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      1. I wasn’t here for the big one in 1967 but they seem to start earlier here too. I remember the bad ones in Canberra some years ago as my friends had just moved there and we had not long arrived in Tassie. That was a bad summer.

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  15. I’m so sorry to hear about the fire! Here in the states, we’ve had terrible fires this year as well, mostly along the west coast. And the sad thing is, they are often started (deliberately or not) by humans.

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  17. Hope they put the fire out okay. That can be pretty scarey. cool pigeon — much better looking than ours. reminds me of Amadeus in the Amadeus movie in the 80s.

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  20. I’m so sorry to hear that fires have started this early in the season and hope that there will be lots of rain to help the firefighters in their heroic efforts!

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