Severe Weather Update Video: Dangerous fire weather conditions for Western Australia, 14 November 2016
14/11/2016
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TRANSCRIPT
Hello from the Bureau, where we're preparing for elevated fire weather conditions over Western Australia in the coming days, particularly through the inland Gascoyne and the inland South West Land Division.
And that's all thanks to hot, dry and gusty northerly winds that are coming down ahead of this low-pressure trough off the west coast. This high in the Bight is directing those winds, and then this cold front in the southwest, in the Indian Ocean, will move further east in the coming days, collect this low-pressure trough, and move that hot air further east.
Today, that low-pressure trough is centred off the west coast, so we're seeing very hot conditions down along the coast and extending into the South West Land Division. As we move into Tuesday, by the afternoon we'll start to see this trough just move slightly inland. Perth is still expecting a hot afternoon: 32°C on Tuesday. But this peak of the fire weather conditions is likely to be the inland Gascoyne and the inland South West Land Division, where we have hot air mass, very low relative humidity, and gusty winds: we could see up to around 70 km/h on Tuesday afternoon.
As we move into Tuesday night, that cold front will approach the southwest coast, bringing the risk of thunderstorms with it as well, and it's likely to bring a significant drop in temperature. It's quite incredible: around 20°C from one side of the cold front to the other, between Tuesday and Wednesday. As I said, Perth 32°C Tuesday, down to 19°C on Wednesday. Albany: 39°C Tuesday, down to 19°C on Wednesday.
And then, that hot air mass that's bringing the fire weather conditions is likely to be restricted out into the east of the State, around the Eucla coast. An increased risk of thunderstorms on Wednesday, but we could see temperatures reaching the mid-40s on Wednesday about that region.
But on Tuesday it's all about the fire weather conditions through the inland Gascoyne and inland South West Land Division, where we're likely to see extreme to catastrophic fire danger ratings through these areas.
So it's certainly a day to keep abreast of all your weather warnings from the BOM website, follow advice from the emergency services. You can get all your weather and warnings from the BOM Weather app, and you can follow us on Twitter as well.
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