Fire Danger Spikes in the NT
Joel Pippard,
Sunday September 30, 2018 - 14:33 AEST
Hot and dry conditions are combining with gusty winds to produce severe and extreme fire danger across the Top End today.
All parts of the mainland coast along with the Katherine Fire Protection Area have a severe fire danger rating for Saturday.
Darwin and the Adelaide River area is experiencing extreme fire dangers today on the back of many severe fire danger days in September.
Image: Fire Danger Ratings for Saturday over the NT. Severe in Orange and Extreme in Red. Courtesy of Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services
Temperatures are again climbing well into the mid-thirties for most of the state with humidity generally below 20%. At 2:00pm CST, Bradshaw recorded a relative humidity of just 8%, along with temperatures above 37 degrees.
Despite the hot and dry conditions, it is the increased wind speeds blowing from the east today that is leading to such a large area seeing severe or higher fire dangers.
Darwin Harbour recorded a 65km/h gust at 10:23 am this morning with sustained winds above 30km/h lasting for several hours. In fact, over half the official observation stations across the NT have seen gusts over 50 km/h this morning.
At 2pm CST Saturday, there were two bushfires with watch and act warnings associated with them in the Darwin and Adelaide River area, with many more fires alight across the state.
These hot and dry easterly winds will likely stick around through the week across the Top End, though they should be slightly weaker than today.
To keep up to date with the latest fire information in the NT visit http://www.pfes.nt.gov.au/incidentmap/index.html.
- Weatherzone
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