Weather impacts

[CaptCom]

During my evidence in the Black Tuesday coronial...I was alerted to some new weather research and events known as "dry slots".

this research finally made sense of the fire behaviour we witnessed.

It will be something that we need to consider with IMT and planning...

A dry slot has the ability to drop the RH from 20% to 3% and dry twigs 6mm in diameter in an hour..effectively creating explosive and unpredictable fire behaviour.

here's a link to more info..

In the last 6 years there has been 200+ occasions of this occuring..

http://www.bushfirecrc.com/news/slots2.html

[firetruck]

oh how lovely that news is!

can that occur anywhere or is restricted to certain areas?

[Toast]

Well, the more you know. Also, filtered

[CaptCom]

oh how lovely that news is!

can that occur anywhere or is restricted to certain areas?

sorry firetruck...anywhere...the article is very interesting..even responsible for lightening strikes etc..

It proved to be a valuable point of arguement when I was on the stand...

Not a great piece of info as firies though...except it will change our response plans SIGNIFICANTLY if they predict a dry slot and we have a fire going!  :-o

[rescue5271]

Make's you think even more out of the square and only shows just what may happen...May need to re write the book on fire behavior.

[Robert-Robert34]

The way that our winter is going at the moment with lack of rain coming out of significant fronts that come over SA we might see these dry slots happening again in the 2006-207 fire season

[CFS_Firey]

I think you're right Robert, chances of it happening are pretty high...

[Robert-Robert34]

Well firey i have had this gut feeling for the last few months that were in for a ultra bad fire season in 2006-2007 due to all of the frosty nights SA has had which kills off the grass making it prone to drying out real quick come spring & summer

Dry winter + Real cold nights with frost= Potentially lethal 2006-2007 fire season

Plus the South East & Mount Lofty Ranges should have had a really big fire in 2003 when it was 20 years since AW2 1983 but it seems we have been lucky these last few years

But as the old saying goes dont count your chickens before they hatch

I for one hope we dont see Ash Wednesday III this fire season coming as a fire on that scale would be impossible to stop because of its speed and ferocity

[Camo]

How about we try and schedule it in for a Saturday.  At least we wont have too many troubles crewing the trucks.

lets face it - its gonna happen again someday and probaly worse  :oops:

[Manuel]

Dry winter + Real cold nights with frost= Potentially lethal 2006-2007 fire season

also a very wet winter, because it causes much more grass, that is longer.  :evil:

[Robert-Robert34]

How about we try and schedule it in for a Saturday.  At least we wont have too many troubles crewing the trucks.

lets face it - its gonna happen again someday and probaly worse  :oops:

I agree camo but we dont know what day it is gonna happen on for we all know it might catch us off guard

[Toast]

How about we try and schedule it in for a Saturday.  At least we wont have too many troubles crewing the trucks.

lets face it - its gonna happen again someday and probaly worse  :oops:

Speaking of that, I don't know how we managed to crew 24,12 AND Tanker for the Mt. Osmond fire last year, what with it being a lunchtime tuesday and all.

Although yes, this summer is not looking to good.

[rescue5271]

No can't have it on a Saturday cam,that would mean missing out on football or cricket Sunday is better then we can get out of going to church :mrgreen:

[CFS_Firey]

How about we cancell it for this season so we can have some more time to decide a good day?

[Crankster 34]

Ah yes, we need a committee or working party, then we'll put it out for consultation amongst the volunteers and maybe even hold a forum. Then we will ignore all the evidence and information before us and do exactly the opposite - that's the CFS way..

[fire03rescue]

SUPERCRANK

[Toast]

Ah yes, we need a committee or working party, then we'll put it out for consultation amongst the volunteers and maybe even hold a forum. Then we will ignore all the evidence and information before us and do exactly the opposite - that's the CFS way..

STOP TELLING THE TRUTH,  SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP.

[CaptCom]

All I can tell you is that if you have a fire going and a dry slot occurs...you will have to extract every digit known... :-D

It has the potential to create explosive and unpredictable fire behaviour...as for time of day..you should know that it always happens just before a meal time  :evil:

I believe it's something to factor into Group Response Plans..if they predicted a dry slot it should change the response to a 4th or 5th alarm immediately.

[medevac]

hmmmmm theres that 5th alarm again....





just stirrin'

certaintly would be a good prompt to be stepping up the resources a fair bit

[firetruck]

Well firey i have had this gut feeling for the last few months that were in for a ultra bad fire season in 2006-2007 due to all of the frosty nights SA has had which kills off the grass making it prone to drying out real quick come spring & summer

Dry winter + Real cold nights with frost= Potentially lethal 2006-2007 fire season

Plus the South East & Mount Lofty Ranges should have had a really big fire in 2003 when it was 20 years since AW2 1983 but it seems we have been lucky these last few years

But as the old saying goes dont count your chickens before they hatch

I for one hope we dont see Ash Wednesday III this fire season coming as a fire on that scale would be impossible to stop because of its speed and ferocity

all well and good robert, but don't wish it on us.

[CaptCom]

The only good fire season for us is when we get unseasonal rains..

I agree with Robert34 and there is an article out by Bushfire CRC in relation to our up coming season and it's potential to be bad.

It all relates to preparedness and having communities assist...and no room for complacency!  :evil: