ByMark Buttler and Shannon Deery
EXTREME heat and potential fire bans are likely over the New Year’s Eve weekend.
Temperatures in some northern Victorian towns are expected to exceed 40C on Friday and Saturday.
The temperature in Melbourne is forecast to reach 36C on New Year’s Eve.
Mildura is forecast to be 41C on Friday and Saturday.
The predicted scorching heat and northerly wind could lead to the first total fire bans of the summer.
A Country Fire Authority spokesman said it was rare for the state to reach late December without fire bans having been applied in at least one zone. They have been imposed as early as October in some years.
“It is unusual. Normally, we would have had something by now,” the spokesman said.
People should not be lured into complacency by the heavy rain in recent weeks.
The spokesman said 800ha of flooded land at Sea Lake was burnt when dry vegetation above the water line caught fire recently.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Rod Dickson said there was an increased chance of above average temperatures from next month onwards.
New Year’s Eve revellers in Melbourne could expect a cool change about 10pm, before a warm New Year’s Day.
Mr Dickson said January and February would be hot.
In Queensland, most of the state is braced for flooding as heavy rain continues to fall.
Chinchilla, Roma and Charleville are all on flood alert as swollen rivers and creeks continue to rise.
Chinchilla, on Charley’s Creek, 300km northwest of Brisbane, is braced for its worst flood in almost 30 years.
“That’s really rising fast and it looks like it’s going to be a very big flood there, bigger than in 1983,” said senior hydrologist Paul Birch.
Evacuations have begun at Theodore, on the Dawson River west of Bundaberg.
Banana Shire Council Deputy Mayor Maureen Clancy said the river was steadily rising and efforts began on Monday to evacuate about 15 residents from the town’s retirement village.
In the south of the nation, it wasn’t quite a white Christmas, but residents of Hobart were treated to an out-of-season dump of snow when they awoke yesterday.
Cold and damp conditions across the Apple Isle resulted in snow falling on Mt Wellington, where the temperature fell to -3C overnight.
buttlerm@heraldsun.com.au
Source: www.heraldsun.com.au
