Total Fire Ban Today

simsim said :

I have been wondering about the “Catastrophic” thing as well. Surely that should only apply if the sign is actually in flames at the time?

The Fire Danger Rating (FDR) for the next day is worked out at around 18:00 each day. If the FDR is predicted to be very high, a Catastrophic warning will go out.
The main reason why the warning will be given the night before as at 21:00 the night before a fire could start in the Brindabella’s & the strong, hot north westerly could come up at 09:00 the next day. Now with the 2003 fires, once the wind “grabbed” the fire & shot it to Canberra the fire was unstoppable until the wind lost its power (half way up Mount Taylor, Kambah). Now if the same thing occurred in 2010 (or beyond) Canberran’s would be told to get get out of Canberra the night before. Which means that the great ACT Police Officer that gave the orders for forced evacuations won’t have to be picked on again.
Although I have come to the conclusion that on the morning of 18/01/03 when we were all told that most roads west of Canberra were closed, that that was a pretty good warning that something bad was going to happen.

I have been wondering about the “Catastrophic” thing as well. Surely that should only apply if the sign is actually in flames at the time?

Should also include complete ban on smoking of ciggies!

I assume some fire bugs struck yesterday-opposite the paint ball place where the hill is surrounded by houses. Thick smoke and flames looked way too close for comfort to homes that were right near the hill. Not sure of the actual name though. I passed 5 trucks on the Monaro heading to put it out.

So just do we redline this puppy…?

Catastrophic is the one used to encourage firebugs when they want some areas burnt off.