Australia Issues First-Ever Code Red Fire Warning As Heat Wave, Winds Parch South - AFP

[hatrack]

Australian officials issued their first ever "catastrophic" wildfire evacuation warning Tuesday, as a parching heatwave intensified over the country's south.

Created in the wake of February's devastating Black Saturday firestorm, which killed 173 people, the new warning urges residents to flee due to conditions being at their most extreme. It replaced a "stay or go" policy allowing homeowners to remain and fight extremely risky blazes, which came under heavy criticism after the February disaster.

Catastrophic or Code Red conditions were declared for the first time in South Australia state Tuesday, where the temperature was forecast to top 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) following an earlier record-breaking heatwave.

"In the next couple of days we are going to see high temperatures, very low humidity and very strong winds," said fire service chief Euan Ferguson. "This is the first real test for the summer."

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/091117081356.3acwzazz.html

[Dead_Parrot]

1. Here we go again.

:(

[Bobbieo]

2. Dead_Parrot - Are you laughig or crying here?

[Dead_Parrot]

4. Mainly crying

There's a chunk of schadenfreude in one of the worst per capita carbon producers' country catching fire, but it's always the little people who loose their houses and the wildlife takes a hell of a hell of a beating.

[librechik]

3. Summer arriving early this year in Melbourne

My son lives there--I'm visiting in January, at the peak of the bush fire season...

I spoke to him Saturday--the weather is unusually warm for November.