Extreme fire danger ratings for South Australia and Victoria on December 26, 2024. Video by The Bureau of Meteorology,
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00:00Damaging winds and extreme fire dangers to impact parts of South Australia and
00:05Victoria over the next 48 hours and we can see a severe weather warning is
00:09already current for damaging winds for large parts of Western Victoria,
00:13southwest New South Wales and much of eastern South Australia. This does
00:18include the Grampians where those ongoing fires are. If you live in this
00:22yellow highlighted area or know someone that does that means we can see winds
00:26gusting of 90 to 100 kilometres an hour tomorrow. That's enough to bring down
00:30trees and power lines, cause some minor power outages but also create dangerous
00:35conditions for our ongoing fires through the Grampians. So if you live on or near
00:40any of the fires going around the Grampians area please stay up to date
00:44with the latest forecasts and warnings in the coming days. Now not only is it damaging
00:48winds we're also looking at extreme fire dangers today and tomorrow. Today we're
00:53expecting extreme fire dangers through western parts of South Australia and
00:56the Mount Lofty ranges as well but it is tomorrow that we are more concerned
01:01about as we see large areas of extreme fire dangers through eastern parts of
01:06South Australia, western and central Victoria and even get into parts of
01:10eastern Victoria as well except for East Gippsland. This does include the Melbourne
01:15metropolitan area and the Grampians National Park. What this orange
01:19highlighted area means that if you live in this area conditions will likely be
01:23dangerous for fire activity tomorrow as we see a combination of strong winds,
01:28high temperatures and dry air meaning that any fire that does get going
01:32tomorrow or already is ongoing around the Grampians will likely be
01:36uncontrollable and uncontainable tomorrow leading to dangerous and
01:40erratic fire behaviour. So please make sure if you live in forested or grassy
01:45areas make sure you stay up to date the latest forecasts and warnings and
01:48especially listen to all advice from emergency services. And another thing
01:53that's driving these conditions is the heat. So we're seeing very high
01:56temperatures in the high 30s to low to mid 40s today across much of central and
02:02eastern inland Australia and it gets even hotter tomorrow with temperatures
02:06in the high 30s to low 40s for Victoria, 40s for much of inland New South Wales
02:11and even getting into the mid to high 40s through parts of Queensland and
02:15South Australia and it's this heat combined with strong winds that is
02:19causing these fire conditions and we can see that today as we move into the
02:23evening hours tonight that cool change moving into southwestern South Australia
02:27and then another move towards the Adelaide area on Thursday morning and
02:31it's going to be a hot night with temperatures in the low 30s for much of
02:34the night and then that change will sweep through parts of Adelaide as we
02:38move into the morning hours and then start moving into western parts of
02:42Victoria on Thursday and you can see there's really hot and gusty winds
02:46moving down ahead of that. Then that westerly change probably looking to move
02:50around the fire grounds of the Grand Mints in that mid-afternoon time frame
02:53so watch out for that. Then that cool change will move into central parts of
02:57Victoria as we get into the afternoon and evening hours, probably at this stage
03:02into the late evening hours around the Melbourne area and then that westerly
03:05change will sweep across much of Victoria on Thursday night and South
03:09Australia as well leading to big temperature drops and then the focus on
03:13Friday will shift into parts of New South Wales with hot dry windy
03:16conditions leading to high to extreme fire dangers in northeastern parts of
03:21New South Wales on Friday. So with these dangerous fire conditions and damaging
03:25winds forecast in the coming days particularly through Victoria and South
03:28Australia make sure you stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings
03:32by our website app and social media and listen to all advice from emergency
03:37services.