The best and final meteor shower of summer peaks tonight in an astronomical double-header. See the cloud forecast. Chevron right

Ashburn, VA

82° F
Location Chevron down
Location News Videos
Use Current Location
Recent

Ashburn

Virginia

82°
No results found.
Try searching for a city, zip code or point of interest.
settings
Ashburn, VA Weather
Today WinterCast Local {stormName} Tracker Hourly Daily Radar MinuteCast Monthly Air Quality Health & Activities

Around the Globe

Hurricane Tracker

Severe Weather

Radar & Maps

News

News & Features

Astronomy

Business

Climate

Health

Recreation

Sports

Travel

Video

Podcasts

Winter Center

News & Features AccuWeather Prime Astronomy Business Climate Health Recreation Sports Travel

News / Severe Weather

Downpours to help douse flames as more than 100 Australia bushfires continue to burn

By Eric Leister, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

Published Jan. 13, 2020 5:51 PM EDT

Copied

A big change in the weather pattern will benefit firefighting efforts across fire-weary southeast Australia into next week.

Recent rainfall and cooler weather allowed firefighters to contain some blazes across Victoria and New South Wales in the past week; however, more than 80 fires are ongoing in New South Wales and nearly 20 blazes continued to burn in Victoria as of Wednesday.

A brief period of hot and dry weather elevated the fire danger across parts of Victoria and New South Wales into Wednesday.

Smoke from wildfires continued to blow across Victoria and New South Wales on Wednesday before some relief finally arrived.

The smoke created poor air quality in Melbourne on Tuesday and Wednesday, which disrupted qualifying for the Australian Open and caused complaints from several players.

The heat and poor air quality was washed away by afternoon thunderstorms that brought 25 mm (1 inch) or more of rainfall to Melbourne and surrounding areas as a cold front moved through the area.

The storms also produced strong winds and hail.

Satellite animation showing thick smoke across Victoria on Tuesday. (Australia Bureau of Meteorology)

The cold front continued to advance across the remainder of southeast Australia on Thursday bringing further relief from the recent heat and poor air quality, but will spark widespread showers and thunderstorms.

The cooler air arriving with the rainfall will hold through the upcoming weekend with daily highs near or below 27 C (80 F) in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.

Central and eastern Victoria and New South Wales, as well as the Australian Capital Territory, will all have an increased chance for rainfall starting Thursday.

Dangerous Australia fires continue to burn
Twitter

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

Daily downpours will be possible across the same areas from Friday into early next week.

Rainfall amounts of 25-75 mm (1-3 inches) will be common through Monday with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ rainfall of 150 mm (6 inches) in eastern New South Wales.

While this rainfall will not be enough to fully extingish the largest blazes, some smaller bushfires may be brought under control by the upcoming rainfall.

Related:

Australia Weather Center
Interactive Australia weather radar
Taal Volcano spews lava, ash as fears of ‘hazardous eruption’ persist in the Philippines

The improved conditions may also allow firefighters to get better containment on the larger and more dangerous fires, including the "megafire" that developed when three fires merged into one last Friday along the New South Wales and Victoria border.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the blazes combined to char nearly 2 million acres and have burned an area eight times larger than Hong Kong.

More than 2,100 homes have been destroyed since the season began, including over 1,200 since Jan.1. Over 24,000 buildings have been saved, according to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

The downside of the storms will be the increase in lightning strikes that could create new fires, but this risk will be more than outweighed by the benefits of rainfall across the region.

A firefighter patrols a controlled fire as they work at building a containment line at a wildfire near Bodalla, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020. Authorities are using relatively benign conditions forecast in southeast Australia for a week or more to consolidate containment lines around scores of fires that are likely to burn for weeks without heavy rainfall. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Another concern will be for localized flooding as the downpours fall in the same locations for multiple days in a row.

The combination of thunderstorms and heavy rainfall may also result in travel disruptions on any given day in Canberra and Sydney.

Following Wednesday's severe thunderstorms in Melbourne, the next threat for widespread rainfall in the city will be Sunday into Monday. This rain may cause issues for the start of the Australian Open on Monday.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.

Report a Typo
Comments that don't add to the conversation may be automatically or manually removed by Facebook or AccuWeather. Profanity, personal attacks, and spam will not be tolerated.
Comments
Hide Comments

Weather News

Weather Forecasts

Dramatic cooldown to bring taste of fall to East Coast

Aug. 11, 2022
Weather Forecasts

Looming heat wave may lead to wildfire surge in Northwest

Aug. 11, 2022
Astronomy

Final supermoon of 2022 to rise tonight

Aug. 11, 2022
Weather News

Army identifies 2 Fort Benning soldiers killed by fallen tree in Ga.

Aug. 11, 2022
Astronomy

Saturn opposition: Why August is perfect for spotting the ringed plane...

Aug. 10, 2022
Weather News

Bystanders spring into action seconds before sinkhole swallows car

Aug. 10, 2022
Weather News

Heat, drought brings river low enough for people to walk across

Aug. 9, 2022
Weather Forecasts

Southeast reprieve from steamy air to come at cost

Aug. 11, 2022
Recreation

Level up your barbecue game this summer with these gas grills

Jul. 15, 2022
Recreation

Why a zero-gravity chair is what you should add to your yard this year

Jul. 19, 2022
Show More Show Less Chevron down

Topics

News & Features

AccuWeather Prime

Astronomy

Business

Climate

Health

Recreation

Sports

Travel

Top Stories

Severe Weather

Water rescues made as flash floods slam D.C. area

6 hours ago

Weather News

Americans endure scorching heat amid a summer for the record books

3 hours ago

Severe Weather

Doctor calls survivor in DC lightning blast ‘absolute miracle’

16 hours ago

Astronomy

TONIGHT: Final meteor shower of summer peaks

1 hour ago

Hurricane

Tropical Atlantic may soon stir from its weeks-long slumber

1 hour ago

More Stories

Featured Topic

Local Arthritis Forecast

Featured Stories

Explore this hurricane-beaten ghost town where time has all but stoppe... Webb space telescope glimpses most distant star known to exist The tools you need to maintain your garden through the rest of summer
AccuWeather Severe Weather Downpours to help douse flames as more than 100 Australia bushfires continue to burn
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs Podcast RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Shop AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Weather Blogs Winter Weather
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs Podcast RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Shop AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Weather Blogs Winter Weather
© 2021 AccuWeather, Inc. "AccuWeather" and sun design are registered trademarks of AccuWeather, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | TAG Disclosure | Do Not Sell My Data checkmark Confirmed Not Selling Your Data

We have updated our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.

I Understand

Get AccuWeather alerts as they happen with our browser notifications.

Notifications Enabled

Thanks! We’ll keep you informed.

FEEDBACK