Bushfire threatens Wollongong NSW
A dry winter finishes across much of Australia
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| Top temperatures today were 6 to 10 above normal across central Australia and along the Qld east coast. BoM |
Warm, windy weather fanned a bushfire, apparently deliberately lit, in the escarpment behind Wollongong this afternoon and evening. About 45 fire fighters battled the blaze in difficult terrain behind Mount Kembla which dominates the skyline behind the city. The fire was brought under control Friday.
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| Winter rainfall departures from average shown as deciles. BoM |
With today's 9am reading, rainfall observers around the country totalled up their winter rainfall and, in many areas, found it wanting. The map at left (click to open a larger map in a new window) shows below or well below average rainfall was recorded across almost all of Western Australia and in a band across the nation's centre as well as along most of the NSW and Victorian coasts. The darker red areas are where rainfall was decile 1, or in the lowest 10% of winter rainfall recordings over the past 100 years; light red areas are decile 2 or 3, or in the bottom 30% of readings. The Sydney metropolitan area was one of the pockets falling within the lowest 10%, with just 81.6mm recorded, 228.5mm below average, and making it the equal second driest winter in the past century along with the winter of 1905. In 1970, 78.7mm was recorded, while the driest winter on record was in 1895, when just 43.2mm fell.
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