Fire Weather

The Bureau's Divisional Offices were all heavily engaged in fire weather warning in the Warren and Timcke years. In New South Wales Keith Hannay had a close working relationship with Harry Luke of the NSW Forestry Department in studying the influence of the weather on the outbreak and spread of bushfires. In Victoria Tommy Camm and Jack Johnston also maintained a close watch on fire weather, remembering the disastrous bushfires in Victoria in January 1939.

In Western Australia 'Doc' Hogan (1912–1978) had developed a good working relationship with the Western Australian Forestry Department and when he moved to Adelaide as Deputy Director of SA his interest in the subject led the South Australian Government to give him the authority in June 1956 to declare bans on the lighting of fires in selected districts.

Every State in Australia has experienced disastrous bushfires since the war, those in NSW, Victoria, SA and Tasmania being the most destructive. Like the threat of tropical cyclones and floods, after about five years without the occurrence of the phenomenon action to prepare for the occurrence of bushfires tends to be given lower priority.

Len Dwyer gave fire weather the same priority as tropical cyclones and floods in supporting research into the meteorological aspect of the phenomenon, developing adequate Bureau warning services and promoting closer liaison with relevant Commonwealth and State authorities.

Bureau of Meteorology