Tuesday, December 12, 2006

The sky is back today. I much prefer blue up there to that murky grey-brown that we've had lately.
However, as the ABC reports:

No Victorian communities are under direct threat from bushfires this morning, despite the fact two big blazes in the north-east have joined.

The fire front is estimated to be around 250 kilometres long and the total area burnt now is around 280,000 hectares.

Blazes close to Mount Beauty, Jamieson and Whitfield in the state's north-east are still of concern to authorities.

Two of the bushfires in Gippsland have also merged to form a 60,000 hectare blaze near Dargo.

Authorities are urging residents in fire regions to stay alert despite milder weather forecast for today and tomorrow.

Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) spokesman Craig Ferguson says a wind change and higher temperatures predicted for later in the week are a concern.

"We've got cooler conditions now to about Wednesday and then the winds are going to shift back to the north," he said.

"Thursday at this stage is predicted to heat up again in terms of temperatures, so towards the end of the week we will be back in to having higher fire danger indexes and potentially extreme fire conditions."

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