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| This NASA MODIS image shows in red outline the areas currently burning today, and the huge smoke plume extending SE past Flinders Island, at the bottom centre. The plume blew across Tasmania for part of the day, enveloping much of the state in smoke. MODIS |
 SA, NSW, VIC, TAS: Firies battle blazes as temperatures soar. Single-digit humidities, temperatures 10 to 16 above average and strong to gale-force northerly winds created the worst-possible fire scenario across much of the Southeast of the continent. A boisterous southwesterly change crossed VIC and TAS during the day, dropping temperatures about 15C but bringing virtually no rain. In Melbourne, the overnight temperature dropped from 36.9 at 6pm yesterday to 28.6 at 5.30 this morning before rising again, bringing it close to the record high January minimum temperature of 28.8 in 151 years of record. However, the official minimum figure for the period from 9am yesterday to 9am today was 20.3, the temperature at 9am yesterday. The official minimum for Melbourne Airport was 26.3 and Moorabbin Airport 27.8, just 0.2 below its all-time record in 33 years. In East Gippsland, Gelantipy recorded a January record high maximum temperature of 36.0 in a 13-year history. Temperatures in TAS were also high before the change, reaching 35C at Swansea, but recent rain diminished the bushfire threat. In NSW, many locations in the state's west reached 44 or 45C.
The Great Divide fire, which has now burnt in excess of 9,000sq km, jumped containment lines on its northern and southern flanks, threatening the ski village at Mt Buller in the north, and settlements in the Tambo valley south of Omeo and along a line from Bullumwaal through Bruthen to Buchan in the south. Farm outbuildings, fencing and pastures were destroyed at Tambo Crossing, where there were also reports of heavy stock losses and one unoccupied house lost. Flames were within 1km of Mt Buller and 1.5km of Bruthen. The dry wind change, which arrived mid-afternoon, caused more problems for firefighters with embers reportedly carried up to 15km ahead of the main blaze. Lightning from storms with the front ignited at least 9 new fires, most in the Marysville area. One broke out NE of Tatong, 20km SE of Benalla, burning through 20sq km by Friday morning. Another fire in the Purnim to Framlingham area 20km NE of Warrnambool burnt through over 11sq km of Framlingham Forest, where it is believed to have killed countless koalas and other wildlife. The forest is one of the last remnants of native vegetation in SW VIC, and many rare mature manna gums were destroyed in the fire. There were evacuations in Framlingham, Purnim and Panmure as 140 firefighters attended the fire and several related spotfires. The fire was later contained after burning 16sq km.
Other small fires were reported around Buxton, Corryong, Whitfield, the Dandenongs and Mount Martha on the Mornington Peninsula.
 WA, NT, QLD: Monsoon in full swing. As the surface charts below show, the monsoon trough is now firmly in place from the WA Kimberley to Cape York Peninsula, and monsoonal showers and thunderstorms are continuing to drop relatively modest falls, heavy in places, across the tropical north. Highest 24-hour totals continue to be of the order of 50 to 70mm, but often coming in the form of heavy downpours, such as the 50.4 deluge in 34 minutes at Camooweal this morning, 7.2mm of which fell in 3 minutes (see downpours for more).
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