2013 Fire Season

[Razor]

Thought this worthy of a new topic as its looking very worring this weekend for eastern areas in particular.

Here in Canterbury we are hot and tinder dry, already several major fires in the past couple of days and its looking like a prolonged norwest again over the weekend.

Stay careful out there guys.

Currently a good laze out West Melton way, hope John''s place well away

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Yeah, over Thompsons road way NW of here. Southerly wind at the moment but as it's near to the Waimakariri, there should be not much trouble in putting it out.
If anything happens here, I got a hose?

[03Stormchaser]

Went out to the port hills today, very dry up there aswell.

I would be surprised if there isn't fires over the weekend, esp as the winds pick up. I just hope that there isnt a firebug out there though.

[Razor]

Large pall of smoke accross the SW side of ChCh from a large blaze in West Melton. Its in the mid 30's and not looking good, NW arriving and the fire service have a long afternoon ahead

[03Stormchaser]

Winds picking up, hope they have it under control!

[melja]

Stuff reports they do

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

yes the army's fault. fire in Rifle Range road.

[jamie]

Can see a large plume of smoke to my NNE. looks too big to be a normal wood stump fire. Hopefully it's not out of control.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

yes the army's fault. fire in Rifle Range road.

...another army fire near Waiouru

[Michael]

Seems to be an abnormal amount of fires here this year,not 1 a week but 2/3 each day and little rain seems to be in any forecast either.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Total fire ban now for the Selwyn district.

[Storm Struck]

Very high risk for the Waimak district now borderline extreme while the rest of the region remains on extreme, all the rain from weeks ago has since dried out.
I also noticed a quick jump in farmers harvesting thier barley grass all of a sudden, that stuff would go up so quick in seconds.

Something that was brought up over the weekend with family friends at a wedding from around the city, was mention of the amount of times they are having to water thier lawns and gardens and seem to be getting nowhere.
With little to no growth perhaps the water is just seeping into the ground at deeper levels because of the ongoing shakes, or that the water tables have either shifted or dropped.
I must admit although unrelated to the fire topic, that the ground around here now seems very hollow sound travels through the house and vibrates the walls even with the smallest thing such as people jumping in a pool next door.
However after watering our lawns they seem to be reacting ok.

[melja]

Just need to add some more food for those lawns and gardens I would think as the hot temps and extra water tend to deplete them.
Gran farmers are loving this hot sunny weather as they don't need to use gas gran dryers to finish of the drying.