Sera Blair looks at the impacts on and recovery of Victoria’s mountain ash forests. Historical records suggest that on Black Friday the northwesterly winds were of comparable strength to Black Saturday, with those behind the change weaker, while on Ash Wednesday the southwesterlies after the change dominated. At the time of Black Saturday, southeast Australia had been in the grip of the merciless Millennium Drought for more than 10 years. They also provide critical areas of refuge during bushfires as they burn at a lower severity than younger forests, or even remain unburnt. Want to be kept up to date about nature issues in Victoria? Where the Black Saturday bushfires burnt and killed stands of old growth mountain ash forests, like the east side of the protected O’Shannassay water catchment, Leadbeater’s possum habitat will be recovering. However, this particular change moved unusually quickly. They clear large areas of forest and destroy natural seedling regeneration with a second fire event post-logging. Salvage logging operations move in quickly after fires to recover timber resources before they decay. Try out the different options above. Red lines on a fire perimeter map turning into black lines Saturday symbolized progress was made in containing the Mullen Fire burning about 40 … You can read more about how the Bureau works with emergency management in this blog, about our meteorologist embedded in Victoria's State Control centre. On Black Saturday most of northern Victoria and large parts of central Victoria sweltered through maximum temperatures above 45 °C, with only small areas near the coast and at higher elevations failing to top 42 °C. This was remarkable heat, with many records set for high day- and night-time temperatures as well as for the duration of the heat. Following Black Saturday, the indices were redesigned to create a new category for values of more than 100 (subsequently raised to greater than 150 for FFDI)—and so the 'Catastrophic' ('Code Red' in Victoria) fire danger rating was created. There were two 'pulses' of exceptional high temperatures (28–31 January and 6–8 February). In the case of Black Saturday, we also provided detailed information about Black Saturday's weather to the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, in its inquiry into the tragedy. Approximately 400 fires were recorded across Victoria affecting 78 communities. With meteorological records more often broken by tenths of a degree, this was a huge leap from the previous record of 47.2°C (Mildura, 1939). Over 2,030 houses and 3,500 structures were destroyed with … Our meteorologists worked closely with emergency managers on Black Saturday, and in the days leading up to it—as they do during and prior to all severe weather events. We welcome participation in the comments section of our blog; however, we are not able to respond to all comments and questions and your comments may take a little time to appear. We need to give them the opportunity to get old again. Victoria’s mountain ash forests are one of the most carbon-dense forests in the world. If you look in the top right- hand corner you can see the contrast between what the land was and what it is. 173 people died with about 120 people being killed by a single firestorm considered by experts to be the perfect firestorm. Image: After the flames: burned forest in Strathewen, Victoria, March, 2009. Credit: Mia Schoen. In some ways, meteorologically speaking, this wind change was ‘business as usual’. Melbourne had seen no rain for 35 days—its equal second-longest dry spell on record. This had a catastrophic impact on the fires. The Black Saturday fires caused Australia’s highest ever loss of life from a bush-fire event. By 5 pm, gusts to 115 km/h were recorded at Mt William and Mt Gellibrand, and gusts over 90 km/h were occurring in a number of other places. Locations labelled 'VICD, VICF' etc were portable automatic weather stations used by fire agencies to provide data close to fires. The northwesterly wind ahead of the change drove fires ahead of it, and the southwesterly wind behind the change hit those relatively long and narrow bands of flame broadside on, opening up massively wide fire fronts on their eastern flanks that moved at terrifying speed. Unsurprisingly, areas that were salvage logged after the fires had the lowest plant species diversity. Sending a message from the beach at Tidal River, Wilsons Promontory, Say NO to AGL’s industrialisation of Westernport Bay, Our critically endangered grasslands need to be protected – before they disappear, Make a submission to the inquiry into ecosystem decline in Victoria, Forests of the central west need your help. Mountain ash trees typically take 150 years for tree hollows to begin forming, so Leadbeater’s possum are generally found in forests with old trees. Subscribe to this blog to receive an email alert when new articles are published. The extensive salvage logging operations that took place in the burnt forests for the three years after Black Saturday did widespread damage. The predicted fire danger was literally off the charts—it exceeded the scale designed to measure it. Thunderstorms formed with the change as it rolled through, but also in the smoke plumes above fires east and northeast of Melbourne. Try out the different options above. Old growth areas of mountain ash forests have the greatest abundance of hollow-bearing trees which are a critical habitat resource for many species of possums, gliders and forest birds. Fact, Hopetoun saw the highest temperature ever recorded in the Central Highlands have evolved to with... 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