The official Fire Danger Period (FDP) is now underway for Geelong, Borough of Queenscliffe, Surf Coast and Golden Plain shires.
Local Assistant Chief Fire Officer Brendan Lawson says the lack of rain this Spring has meant the danger period starts over a month earlier than last year.
“The conditions have changed and evolved out there quite quickly and that’s been driven by September rain deficit, that rain deficit has caused our fire season to come on a little bit quickly,” he said.
The 2022 FDP began on Christmas eve, the 2021 season on December 20.
The official end date for this season is May 1, 2024, as compared with the 2022/23 season that ended on April 4, meaning a two month extension to our current danger period year-on-year.
“For this year we are back into our normal summer season which will see fire in the landscape occur should not all risks be taken [into account],” Mr Lawson said.
“That’s why we’re asking our our communities across the Geelong district to just use this as a bit of a reset.”
Climate and fire authorities say three years of above average rainfall driven by La Niña conditions has produced large amounts of vegetation growth throughout Australia that’s now rapidly drying off due to the shift to El Niño that brings drier and warmer conditions.
Barwon Water last month noted that its storage’s were dropping in line with the shifting weather patterns and September was the driest on record.
