As the country becomes drier we have had fires in Canterbury, and in the last day seperate fires around the country in both islands
Marlborough fire evacuation plans discussed
Fire
authorities will brief Marlborough residents on possible evacuation
plans as a massive scrub fire continues to burn.
BLAZE FOUGHT: Helicopters with monsoon buckets have attacked the fire near Renwick for the past two days -
6
February, 2015
The
fire, near Renwick, has burnt through more than 500 hectares, north
of the Wairau River, most of it forest.
The
fire's perimeter has stretched out to 17 kilometres overnight with
one outbreak some distance north of the main blaze.
A
public meeting will be held at the Onamalutu Domain, on
Onamalutu Rd, at 3pm, for people who live near the blaze.
Fire
authorities will discuss their progress on fighting the fire and
contingency plans to evacuate homes if the fire changes direction.
National
Rural Fire Authority incident controller Rob Hands said it was a
chance for people in the area to understand the evacuation plan and
the risks.
"This
is a scattered community and we want to ensure they all know what to
do if the situation changes suddenly," he said.
Residents
were being asked to spread the message about the meeting.
Both
Hands and Marlborough Kaikoura principal rural fire officer Richard
MacNamara would be at the public meeting to answer questions.
Northbank
Rd was expected to remain closed until it was safe to open, while
Lamberts Rd would stay closed today, but might be reopened tomorrow.
Drivers
were asked to use extreme caution driving along State Highway 6 near
Northbank, and to pay attention to any signs or warnings given by
emergency services.
Fire
crews from Marlborough were working alongside crews from Nelson, West
Coast, Canterbury and Kaikoura. The first helicopters took to the air
at 7.30am.
Firefighters
in Marlborough were being assisted by a change in weather conditions
as they continued to battle the blaze.
Hands
said the good news was that no lives and no property had been lost.
"The
temperatures and the wind have dropped and there was about 3mm of
rain in the area in the early hours so we've been given a window of
opportunity to make some real progress," he said.
"But
that window may be brief so we will be making the most of it today."
This
morning fire crews would be making an assessment of all properties in
the fire belt, assessing where firebreaks could be put in or chemical
fire retardant used to protect houses.
Property
owners should exercise their own judgement if they were worried about
the safety of their property or stock, Hands said.
The
public were advised to stay well away from the affected areas
including State Highway 6 between the Wairau Bridge and Onamalutu.
Earlier
six homes were evacuated, four on Lamberts Rd and two on Northbank
Rd, while other lifestyle blocks were on alert.
Firefighters
and two helicopters with monsoon buckets saved one of the homes on
Lamberts Rd, after the flames started to close in on the house.
One
of the helicopters battling the fire crashed into the Wairau River
while filling up a monsoon bucket.
The
47-year-old Marlborough pilot had minor injuries and managed to get
out of the helicopter by himself.
A
haze of smoke hung in the air north of Blenheim, with large plumes
visible from town.
The
fire even threatened to cut electricity to wider Marlborough as it
spread close to two of the region's three main supply lines, which
ran next to State Highway 6.
The
Nelson Marlborough District Health Board put its emergency operations
centre into action to manage the impact of smoke and fire, and Wairau
Hospital, in Blenheim, had a generator on standby.
Marlborough
Kaikoura principal rural fire officer Richard McNamara said yesterday
evening it was "one of the most dangerous fire environments I
have ever seen."
The
fire could still head north into the Onamalutu Valley, he said.
"There's
a lot of heavy fuel out there and the fire is burning intensively in
patches. We're hitting it as hard as we can."
Crews
from Kaikoura, Awatere, Koromiko, Linkwater and the Marlborough
Sounds monitored potential threats to property overnight.
McNamara
said a fire on this scale was extremely taxing on volunteer
firefighters and resources.
"With
this summer we're really into campaign mode. We have called in help
because we cannot run our crews into the ground," he said.
"This
fire is going to take many days to put out completely, and we know
this won't be the last fire of the season."
-
The Marlborough Express
New Zealand's big drought - whole country at risk
Serious
fire danger despite rain and Auckland's dams well down on norm.
2
February, 2015
Rain
forecast for this week is unlikely to offset a soil-parching big dry
that has put much of the country at serious fire risk and begun to
hurt farmers in hot-spot areas.
Yesterday,
farmers and fire officials welcomed long-awaited rain throughout most
of New Zealand - but doubted it would bring any meaningful relief to
those places that had received little of their normal levels this
season.
What
has been one of driest summers yet has led Federated Farmers to
predict official drought declarations are "on the cards".
The
National Institute of Water Atmosphere (Niwa) has described nearly
all of the North Island and much of the South Island as a "hot
spot" where soil conditions are much drier than normal.
Only
sustained rainfall over an extended period would bring the arid areas
back to normal.
In
Auckland, the city's water storage level yesterday was at 71 per cent
- 10 per cent less than the average for this time of year - but no
restrictions have been introduced.
While
rain forecast in coming days for central and western parts of the
North Island could prove enough, it would likely fall well short of
what is needed in other hot spots.
National
Rural Fire Authority executive Gary Lockyer said fire-danger
conditions remained severe in parts of the Waikato, the Central North
Island, Canterbury and Otago.
After
a week that saw 15 vegetation fires - including one that scorched
more than 330ha of tussock and forest near Arthurs Pass before nearly
50 firefighters could put it out - the risk of scrub fire was
considered extreme across a large swathe of the South Island, as well
as pockets of the North Island's east coast.
The
weekend rain might have brought some respite to busy fire crews, Mr
Lockyer said, "but all in all, there won't be a lot of change".
"We
are now heading into February, and the situation is already
reasonably serious, because by now we normally would have seen some
easing of conditions in some regions.
"Fire
danger levels are widespread right across the country, and apart from
the West Coast and Southland, there's no one region that's good."
Federated
Farmers adverse events spokeswoman Katie Milne also wasn't aware of
any volumes at the weekend large enough to bring relief to struggling
farms. "You really do need quite a lot and over a nice slow
period for it absorb. If you just get a cloud burst, it basically
runs off because the ground is like concrete."
Although
no droughts have been officially declared anywhere, Federated Farmers
is this week opening a hotline for struggling farmers to buy feed.
In
hard-hit North Canterbury last week, some farmers were unable to sell
excess stock and were forced to take them home, where there was
little to feed them.
It
could take weeks before the stock could be off-loaded to the works,
Ms Milne said, which was a "pretty harrowing" situation for
farmers.
"We
are at a point now where it could start to get quite ugly. We don't
want to have any animal welfare issues, so that's where people have
to make good decisions early."
Those
finding it especially tough this summer were farmers burdened with
extra infrastructure costs after switching to dairy, or those
exhausting their irrigation water takes.
Banks
were aware of the situation and had been accommodating to financially
stretched farmers, Ms Milne said.
The
Ministry for Primary Industries, responsible for declaring droughts,
had been closely monitoring the dry conditions since December and was
in regular contact with rural support trusts and industry groups.
The
unusually warmer weather is expected to last through to April, while
soil moisture levels were likely to be either near or below normal
levels in the North Island and west of the South Island.
Victoria
University climate scientist Dr James Renwick said unusually dry
summers would become more common under the long-term effects of
climate change.
"The
likelihood of getting a summer like this should at least double by
the end of the century."
Will
El Nino make the big dry drier?
For
farmers, it's a bogeyman that can bring more weather extremes to an
already dry summer. But whether an El Nino pattern will arrive this
summer is still unclear - and even if it does, the impact might be
only fleeting, climate scientists say.
In
New Zealand, the ocean-driven system typically brings cooler, wetter
conditions, delivering higher rainfall to regions that are normally
wet, and often drought to areas that are usually dry.
Although
an El Nino was forecast through much of last year to heat this summer
up, it hasn't eventuated - and last week, Niwa put the chances of one
developing in the next three months at 60 per cent.
At
the last check, sea surface temperatures across the equatorial
Pacific Ocean were still between neutral and weak El Nino conditions.
"It
really hasn't fired up very dramatically in the atmosphere, so if an
El Nino is happening, it will be coming and going," said
independent climate scientist Dr Jim Salinger.
The
week head
Rain
is forecast throughout this week - but it's likely to be "showery"
rather than sustained, MetService meteorologist Ciaran Doolin says.
A
low coming off the Tasman Sea is predicted to bring a moist northerly
flow at the start of the week, followed by a series of troughs from
the south.
By
tomorrow afternoon, showers across the North Island will have become
isolated, with rain still in the west and south of the South Island.
While
Wednesday will be mainly fine across the North Island, heavy rain is
forecast to ease to showers in the west and south of the South
Island.
Rain
and showers will return in both islands on Thursday and Friday.
"Sea surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific Ocean were still between neutral and weak El Nino conditions."
"Sea surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific Ocean were still between neutral and weak El Nino conditions."
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