Severe

Last week I thought we were seeing the end of the scary weather. I was wrong, very wrong. Last Weds. the CFA rated the fire danger as "Very High" (yellow). Today? Oh, lordy... today it's worse - today it's "severe" (orange) in most of the state, including the central district - where we live.

Stephen and I figure that if it's "severe" for the entire district, in practical terms it's probably one notch higher on Mount Dandenong, just because of the terrain.

The temperature as I type this (about 9:30 a.m.) is in the mid-20's - which is fairly comfortable. The high predicted for today is 34 C - not "stinkin' hot", but fairly toasty, all the same. And it's going to be windy (30-45 km/h) - it's the  dry-plus-hot-plus-windy that's producing the elevated danger.

Tomorrow the rating will drop back down to "high" (blue) and on Friday it will go all the way to "low-mod" (green), and it looks like it will stay that way throughout Easter weekend. I'd really like to think today is the end of the high-danger days - but I said that last week, didn't I?