Now Hundreds Of Bushfires In Austalia. - Already 97.7F In Victoria - AFP

[hatrack]

Australia's southern states were in the grip of a bushfire crisis Thursday, with high winds and temperatures fuelling hundreds of blazes across the tinder-dry countryside. Hundreds of firefighters were battling blazes in four states with homes threatened in New South Wales and the island state of Tasmanaia, where officers said they were facing "near-record fire danger."

In Tasmania, where the mercury hit 33.1 deg C (91.6 deg F), billowing smoke threw traffic into chaos, while 11 of 18 fires across the state were still out of control. "I have never experienced weather like this at this time of year," Tasmania Fire Service spokesman Danny Reid said amid unconfirmed reports that flames had already engulfed one house. "Right across the state we've got 18 fires, and out of those 11 are not yet contained but their is only the one in (Hobart's) eastern suburbs that is causing us any concern," he told the Australian Associated Press.

Unseasonably high temperatures for October, the country's worst ever drought and suspected cases of arson sparked devastating fires, destroying hundreds of hectares of bush and threatening property.Worst affected in terms of the number of fires was the state of Victoria, where temperatures as high as 36.5 deg C (97.7 deg F) sparked as many 260 fires as the annual fire season hit about two months early

In New South Wales, dozens of homes in the north of the state's Hunter Valley wine growing region were threatened, and remote bushland burned in Sydney's far south-west.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2006/061012110313.ew8rbs3w.ht...

[rodeodance]

1. Howie followed Bush on Kyoto.

[hatrack]

2. And is reaping as he sows

Sound vaguely Biblical, doesn't it?