Tuesday 12 December 2006

Fire & Drought Impact At Ochre Arch

Last week Jan and I were staying on Ochre Arch, and the effects of both the current drought and fires were very evident. There was a storm which provided some brief relief through 5 mm of rain however this event was immediately preceded by extreme winds that stirred up a dust storm – evident in the accompanying picture.
Given that our farm is located over 530 km from Melbourne and 300 km from Sydney ‘as the crow flies’ and that the prevailing weather patterns are from the north west it would be reasonable to assume we would not be impacted by the remnants of fires in Victoria or the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney. The reality is quite different. On the first day we were on the farm there’d been easterly winds leaving us in the midst of smoke from the east. Several days later the winds were from the south and south east, bathing us in smoke from the fires in Victoria. The attached image shows just how thick this smoke was, creating what to some might appear impressive sunset affects

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