Catastrophic fire danger for the south-east

Australian Community Media

Heatwave conditions leading to catastrophic fire danger rating for much of the south east beginning January 8-9, 2026.

Transcript

00:00Hello Sarah from the Bureau. Now tomorrow is shaping up to be a very dangerous fire

00:04weather day across southeastern parts of the country. We've got very high temperatures,

00:10damaging winds and they're contributing to extreme to catastrophic fire dangers.

00:14Now in this video I'll be taking you through first the fire dangers for today

00:18and the expected weather followed by what you need to know for tomorrow.

00:24So for today extreme fire dangers are forecast for the Mid-North

00:28Fire District for South Australia and for Victoria, the Mallee, Northern Country and North East District.

00:35Now within these area fire weather warnings are current with total fire bans in place

00:40but also worth noting that there is a total fire ban for the North Central District of Victoria as well

00:46with a number of fires at the emergency level. Now the elevated fire dangers are being driven by these

00:53very high temperatures with heatwave conditions that have been continuing for a number of days

00:59and widespread temperatures in the low to mid 40s through inland areas. For Adelaide forecasting a

01:05maximum of 39 degrees but considerably cooler, 10 degrees cooler than yesterday for Melbourne

01:10thanks to a southerly change with a maximum of 31. Now severe thunderstorms with damaging winds are

01:17possible through these yellow areas and as well there's very little rainfall expected with any of

01:23the storms that do form. So this creates a risk of dry lightning that could potentially ignite new fires.

01:31Now moving into tomorrow, the heat is expected to start to build further down in southern parts of Victoria.

01:38In fact, tomorrow is going to be the hottest day this week for Victoria and widespread inland temperatures

01:45of 45 to 47 degrees. But it's not just the extreme heat, it's combining with very windy conditions

01:52thanks to a cold front that's sweeping across and those very gusty and dry north to northwesterly winds ahead of it.

02:00So I just thought I'd show you the winds one and a half kilometres above the surface and they really highlight

02:06how the winds start to peak through southeastern parts of South Australia and Victoria with 80 to 100

02:14kilometres per hour starting to develop from the early morning. Now these are expected to continue

02:20throughout the day with a severe weather warning to be issued for both states for damaging winds.

02:25So that's wind gusts up to 90 kilometres per hour throughout the day tomorrow. So it's these really windy

02:32conditions combining with the extreme heat that are elevating fire dangers to extreme for southern parts

02:39of South Australia tomorrow and also for Victoria but with areas of catastrophic for the Wimmera,

02:45the northern country and the north central district. It's within these areas that any fires that do get

02:52going are going to spread very quickly and be very difficult to control. But as well as that there's a

02:59severe thunderstorm risk with damaging wind gusts through this yellow area associated with that

03:04cold front that can cause erratic fire behaviour as those gusts hit the ground and make the wind

03:10direction very difficult to predict. So with these elevated fire dangers we have seen now a number of

03:18days of extreme heat or heatwave conditions that have dried the landscape considerably. As well that dry

03:25lightning from those elevated thunderstorms could ignite new fires and if they get going those fires are

03:30going to spread quickly and be difficult to control. Heading from Friday into Saturday I just wanted to

03:38show that the strong or gusty winds are expected to contract into eastern parts of Tasmania and

03:44southeastern parts of New South Wales. The heat will also move into eastern parts of New South Wales with a

03:51maximum of 42 degrees forecast for Sydney and even warmer for the western suburbs. Just also noticing much

03:58milder conditions on the way for the weekend ahead for southern parts of South Australia, Victoria and

04:04Tasmania with maximums in the mid-20s. But those high temperatures for eastern New South Wales and the winds

04:11will elevate the fire dangers reaching extreme including across the Sydney metro.

04:16So if you live across southeastern parts of the country it's imperative that you stay up to date

04:24with the latest warnings via the Bureau website app and social media and as always listen to the advice

04:30from your local emergency services. Bye for now.

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