Daily Fire Danger Ratings and Local Weather

I'm finally admitting that updating the daily Fire Danger Ratings is more of a chore than I can always handle. 

Lately I've been missing the updates about one day in three, and even though the information was still accessible, I feel guilty about not being consistent in the presentation of the data.  So to make the situation clearer for people logging on to see this data, I've moved it to a tab on the line under the blog heading.

Apart from taking some work off my shoulders, the new arrangement allows more scope for adding relevant information, without having to redesign the blog layout.

New Climate Council report on bushfires and climate change in Australia

2013 has been a year of record-breaking temperatures, below-average rainfall in many areas, and unfortunately, a severe start to the fire season in the Blue Mountains.

The Climate Council has just released a landmark report on the links between climate change and bushfires - to answer many of the questions now being asked increasingly frequently in the community.

In summary, the top six findings of the report's authors are:

• Climate change is already increasing the risk of bushfires.
• In southeast Australia the fire season is becoming longer, reducing the opportunities for hazard reduction burning.
• Recent severe fires have been influenced by record hot, dry conditions.
• In the future, Australia is very likely to experience an increased number of days with extreme fire danger.
• It is crucial that communities, emergency services, health services and other authorities prepare for the increasing severity and frequency of extreme fire conditions.
• This is the critical decade for action.

You can read more and share the report HERE.