On the subsynoptic - scale meteorology of two extreme fire weather days during the Eastern Australian fires of January 2003 Graham

During January and February 2003 vast areas of Australia’s Alpine areas were burnt during a series of massive bushfires (see Fig. 1 in Bureau of Meteorology (2003)). While not minimising any part of the period, two days stand out meteorologically. The first was 18 January 2003, when fires caused the deaths of four people, many other injuries, the loss of over 500 houses and other infrastructure losses, and more than 70 per cent of the parks, forests and pastures in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) was burnt (McLeod 2003) (see Fig.1 for place names referred to in the text, and for the topography of the region). The second day was 30 January 2003, when strong, gusty winds over the Victorian Alpine country, associated with high temperatures and low humidity, contributed to the Eastern Victorian fires making major ‘runs’ to the southeast (Bureau of Aust. Met. Mag. 54 (2005) 265-290