New weather stations are being rolled out across Victoria to help fire agencies better respond to bushfires and support safer, more effective planned burns
Announced by the Minister for Emergency Services, Jaclyn Symes, the Country Fire Authority (CFA) has received 10 new portable and remote automated weather stations.
“The new automatic weather stations will improve Victoria’s weather observations to allow firefighters to generate more accurate predictions of where a fire might spread, and use more precise local data for community warnings,” Ms Symes said.
“There are seven portable automated weather stations, which will be used on location to help firefighters understand fire behaviour on the ground during an incident, or measuring the weather conditions at a specific site in the lead up to and during a planned burn,” she said.
“These standalone units can be set up in only 15 minutes and record temperature, wind speed and direction, relative humidity, rain and solar radiation as well as fuel and soil moisture content in the surrounding area, transmitting this data to CFA and the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) for analysis.”
Ms Symes said the remote automatic weather stations transmitted their data via 4G or satellite iridium technology, which would appear on the BOM website.
She said there were three static remote automated weather stations permanently situated at Ballan, East Trentham and Glenburn, where there were no permanent weather stations to provide high quality, localised fire weather observations.
Acting Chief Officer of CFA, Garry Cook said the additional weather intelligence would be invaluable to firefighters, “for not only their safety but also in fire response and preparation.”
“Fire is a true force of nature and its behaviour can change in an instant, putting lives and property at risk,” A/CO Cook said.
“Accurate, localised and up-to-the-minute weather information on a fireground is critical to providing an effective emergency response,” he said.
“The stations will help firefighters understand fire behaviour on the ground during a fire incident, or by measuring the weather conditions of an area in the lead up to and during planned burn events.”
A/CO Cook said the weather stations had a huge potential to improve CFA’s planning and responses, “thereby improving firefighter and community safety as well.”
