National Rural Fire Authority Fire Danger Warning

Strong northwest winds up to 100 km/h in exposed places are forecast for today for the Wairapapa, Marlborough, Canterbury and Otago.

Prohibited fire seasons exist within these areas with all fires in the open being banned.

MetService forecasters are forecasting an active front should bring significant rain to the ranges of the South Island West Coast ranges and more than likely, reasonable spillover in the headwaters of the rivers and lakes of Otago and Canterbury. Associated with this northwesterly gales are predicted for parts of Wairarapa, Wellington, Marlborough and inland Canterbury late Thursday or Friday ahead of the front. These weather conditions are predicted to elevate the widespread extreme fire dangers in these areas. Any fires that start in these conditions are likely to be significant and difficult to control. The recent rain experienced in these areas has had little effect in reducing the extreme fire danger that exists. Only significant rain over long period will have any major change to the extreme fire dangers.

As resources are becoming stretched within Canterbury due to the number of fires the National Rural Fire Authority is co-ordinating support from other Rural Fire Authorities in lower fire danger areas. A number of crews from these areas have been placed standby in case additional resources are required to be deployed to Canterbury. A National Incident Management team has been deployed to Canterbury to support local resources.

The public are asked to report all fires by ringing 111.

For further information on fire weather and fire seasons visit the National Rural Fire Authority web site
http://nrfa.fire.org.nz
.

© Scoop Media