Michael Thompson
EF3
I had to visit Melbourne over the weekend and on the way back saw the fires from the plane, Plane was a 21,000ft at time.
The fires at present are less threatening due to cooler temperatures and lighter winds over the weekend, however this is only the beginning of summer and there will be more hot and windy days to come before this emergency is over.
The first photo was taken looking E/SE ,about 150km north of Melbourne. There are several fire fronts visible, the most distant had a small bubble of pyro-cumulus. The 5th which was just out of frame (second picture) was one that flew almost directly over. The is fire is near Mt Buffalo ( the rocky bits ), a ski resort - that this past winter had almost no snow the entire season. You can also see that this fire is near farmland, although the worst winds N/NW should they develop later this week would blow it back.
These fires were not the largest in the complex, those were in the smoke soup about 100-150km further SE.
Images click to larger pictures.
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fozthunder.com%2Ftemp%2F171206b_t.jpg&hash=019fbca94cf5ba12edefd323e057f2a5)
The fires at present are less threatening due to cooler temperatures and lighter winds over the weekend, however this is only the beginning of summer and there will be more hot and windy days to come before this emergency is over.
The first photo was taken looking E/SE ,about 150km north of Melbourne. There are several fire fronts visible, the most distant had a small bubble of pyro-cumulus. The 5th which was just out of frame (second picture) was one that flew almost directly over. The is fire is near Mt Buffalo ( the rocky bits ), a ski resort - that this past winter had almost no snow the entire season. You can also see that this fire is near farmland, although the worst winds N/NW should they develop later this week would blow it back.
These fires were not the largest in the complex, those were in the smoke soup about 100-150km further SE.
Images click to larger pictures.
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fozthunder.com%2Ftemp%2F171206a_t.jpg&hash=4d308211787a2706abc02613510df806)
![](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fozthunder.com%2Ftemp%2F171206b_t.jpg&hash=019fbca94cf5ba12edefd323e057f2a5)