Month: November 2019

This morepork, or Tasmanian spotted owl, visited us around the first week of November.

Sadly, it had a damaged wing. It could fly, but with difficulty.

I heard an owl one evening a few days later, so perhaps it hung around.

Having seen this relatively small species of owl, perhaps one day we will see one of these.

Also sighted last week in the same spot as the owl was a spectacular white bird of prey, a grey goshawk, in the Tasmanian white subtype.

Unfortunately the goshawk had an entourage of birds pestering it and didn’t stay long enough for a photo.

A GME TX6160 handheld radio was recently handed to Andrew Melton of southern Tasmania’s Judbury Fire Station, courtesy “Scott Povey”, who provided the radio in lieu of payment for his magazine editorial contribution in North Australian Fishing and Outdoors Magazine.

Mr Povey had seen last summer’s Tasmanian bushfires in the news, and decided to make the donation.

The radio was provided at a discount by GME.

The magazine’s publishing company The Editor’s Office Pty Ltd will donate a similar radio for nearby Huonville Fire Station.

The time-honoured tradition of burning off has little if any effect on bushfire risk, researchers say … story here.

Their study found that fire risk is best managed by appropriate landscape design around towns.

The study is sure to prompt some heated debate, as burn-offs are still commonly used.

Wonderful cold, wet weather in Tasmania at the moment.

The mainland though is hot and dry, with fires burning everywhere.

Note the fires in Cairns, Cape York Peninsula and the Kimberley. More recently Victoria started burning.

I am posting this, with the image above from today’s Sentinel, as an archival record, as it is so early in the fire season.

Aside from a fire in the north-east, there are no major fires in Tasmania, yet the Snowy Range in Tasmania’s south was covered in a distinct haze today.

This area should have some of cleanest air in the world.

Could be worse though … check this out.

Meanwhile, South Australia has broken November records … the Bureau of Meteorology said multiple areas broke their maximum November temperature records, including:

Hindmarsh Island 40.7C
Nullarbor 46.6C
Murray Bridge Airport 44.0C
Kingscote Airport 39.1C
Stenhouse Bay 40.1C
Robe Airfield 38.0C
Parafield 44.3C
Keith 44.3C
Padthaway South 39.9C
Clare 40.8C
Strathalbyn 43.1C
Lameroo 44.0C
Naracoorte 40.2C
Parndana 38.1C
Nuriootpa 42.1C

Large areas were 16C above the November average.

Perhaps Tassie is heading in this direction, come January/February. As I write this, 35C in the shade in the Huon.

Fire damage on the mainland so far. And it’s not yet December …

#NSWRFS Building Impact Assessment teams are continuing their inspection of fire affected communities. In the past fortnight, 421 homes have been destroyed. Around 2000 homes have been spared. Already this fire season, six lives have been lost and 530 homes destroyed.#nswfires pic.twitter.com/c4Hlon64DZ

— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) November 17, 2019

Tasmanians who were threatened by last summer’s bushfires will be well familiar with the Sentinel website that shows fire activity.

Happily, Tasmania’s recent polar blast has made the state cold and wet and Sentinel shows no fires across the island.

To the north, on the Australian mainland, NSW and SEQ burns.

Less well publicised are the fires burning across Indonesia. Two Sentinel snapshots are shown from today, NSW above, Indonesia below.

A polar blast is spreading out over the mainland as I write this.

Whether it is related to the unusual stratospheric warming event I mentioned earlier this year I do not know, but we are having a very wet and cold November in southern Tasmania, after hitting 34C and humid just a few days ago.

The Snowy Range is well covered in white.

Meanwhile, north of the polar intrusion, unprecedented fires burn in NSW/SEQ (below) …

Click here to view a page with an animation.

See a series of pictures of the developing NSW fronts here.