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Uncontrolled WA fire causes massive smoke plume

Ben Domensino, Friday April 26, 2024 - 14:48 AEST

A bushfire burning out of control in the far southwest of WA has created a 700 km-long smoke plume that can be seen from space.

The animation below was captured on Friday morning by the Himawari-9 satellite, which sits roughly 36,000 km above the Earth’s surface.

Video: Visible true-colour Himiwari-9 satellite imagery from Friday morning, April 24, 2024.

The smoke was coming from a large fire burning in the Frankland State Forest area to the northeast of Walpole. As of midday local on Friday, an Emergency Warning was in place for the fire, which was burning out of control and moving in a southwesterly direction at the time.

Image: Satellite image captured at 11:20am AWST on Friday. Source: RAMMB/CIRA

The southwest of WA has seen a remarkably long spell of very low rainfall over the past several months, with some places receiving little or no rainfall so far this year.

Image: Rainfall deciles for January to March in 2024. Source: Bureau of Meteorology

The North Walpole weather station, located close to the fireground, has only seen 44 mm of rain since the start of December. In an average year, the site would pick up a bit more than 200 mm between December and April.

Winds will tend westerly on Saturday and then shift southerly on Sunday with a cold front. These changing wind directions may cause the fire to behave erratically and move in varying directions over the next 48 hours. The front may also bring some light rain on Sunday morning.

Visit the Emergency WA website for the most up-to-date information on fires burning in WA.

- Weatherzone

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