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Emergency warning issued for regional Victoria as communities brace for dust storms and mud rain

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A “watch and act” bushfire alert has been issued for Ross Creek, Scarsdale, Smythesdale in Victoria’s west as storms and poor air quality impact towns across Victoria.

The state’s Country Fire Authority said the bushfire at Smythesdale was downgraded from an emergency level about 3.20pm, with residents urged to enact their bushfire plan and leave if it was the safest option.

By 12.30pm, VicEmergency issued “moderate to very poor air quality” due to the dust.

“A dust storm is travelling South East across the entire state from South Australia. The dust storm reached the Mallee and Wimmera earlier today [Friday].

“The dust storm will reach the Central District in the late afternoon.

The bushfire emergency comes as much of the state remains under total fire bans on Friday afternoon.

Andrew Nixon, a spokesman at the Orbost incident control centre, told the ABC more than 100 Victorian firefighters were working on a fire at Bendoc and Bendoc Upper, near the Victorian-NSW border.

“There’s a lot of heavy smoke in the air,” he said.

“That may reduce our ability to have any air operations over the fire.”

Mr Nixon said the fire was about 12 kilometres east of the much larger community of Bendoc.

“We’re pretty confident that if that fire does move to the west of Bendoc that we have the resources to deal with that,” he said.

 

The warning came as Victoria faced its highest demand for electricity in six years on Friday – just hours after a unit at one of its major power stations failed on Thursday night.

The failure of the unit at Loy Yang power station in the Latrobe Valley – which supplies a third of Victoria’s energy – put more pressure on the rest of the state’s grid.

“That unit failed with no notice at all,” state Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said.

“Today [Friday] is going to be challenging. Coal generators can fail with little or no notice, as we saw last night.”

The Australian Energy Market Operator has urged Victorians to reduce their energy use between 1pm-8pm to help prevent electricity blackouts as temperatures across the state soar into the 40s.

 

“While there are currently sufficient electricity reserves to manage the peak electricity demand today, this situation could change,” the regulator said on Friday.

It said people should avoid running additional appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines, set air-conditioners between 23-26 degrees and temporarily switch off pool pumps to help reduce use across the state.

Temperatures were expected to exceed 40 degrees across much of  Victoria on Friday afternoon. Melbourne is forecast to hit 43, while 44 is tipped for many inland towns.

Victoria’s heat will be followed by possible flash flooding and muddy rain from late Friday.

The increased humidity combined with extreme heat will create tropical oppressive weather that will make Melbourne feel more like Darwin.

Melburnians have been urged to be aware of potential changes to public transport during the hot spell.

NSW residents brace for more severe weather

Meanwhile, NSW residents and visitors were urged to remain vigilant ahead of extreme heat conditions over the weekend, bringing heightened health and bushfire risks, with temperatures expected to reach the mid-40s due.

Temperatures will continue to climb on Friday and Saturday due to a low-intensity heatwave transforming into an extreme heatwave as temperature reach into the 40s in southeast and western NSW.

Bureau of Meteorology acting NSW manager Jane Golding says the high temperatures coupled with strong winds will create very high fire danger, particularly on existing fire grounds around the ACT and along the state’s South Coast.

“With the heat comes the fires,” Ms Golding told reporters in Sydney.

Total fire bans have been issued for the Monaro Alpine, southern ranges and southern slopes areas and they are expected to remain in place until Monday.

Ms Golding said there are also concerns about air quality near the ACT and along the South Coast due to bushfire smoke being carried by strong winds.

“That smoke is not going anywhere while the fires are burning and with the increased temperatures the fires will be producing higher levels of smoke,” Ms Golding said.
”A lot of it is being directed towards the South Coast at the moment but we just need the wind to shift and it’ll affect the city (of Sydney) as well.”

The NSW Rural Fire Service on Friday said there were 51 fires burning with 20 not contained with more than 1600 firefighters in the field.

-with AAP

The post Emergency warning issued for regional Victoria as communities brace for dust storms and mud rain appeared first on The New Daily.


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