Heat moving east with temperatures over 40C expected in South Australia and Victoria. Light drizzle after a long dry spell is to blame for a series of fires that have cut power to tens of thousands of homes in Western Australia, while extreme heat is set to dominate the remainder of the long weekend in Victoria and South Australia.
A spokesperson from Western Power said dozens of pole top fires had left 38,000 homes in the Perth and midwest regions of WA without power on Saturday morning. Western Power’s executive manager for asset operations, Zane Christmas, explained the fires could occur in “light drizzling rain or misty, damp conditions when a combination of dust and pollution builds up to create paths or ‘tracks’ on the insulators.
“This tracking electricity can heat poles to a point where they smoulder and burn.”. Overnight on Friday, Perth received 2.4mm, just enough to dampen the dust that had gathered on electricity poles over months of dry weather. Just 15mm of rainfall has fallen in the city in almost three months, Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said.
He said the phenomenon was “a strange one”, but “happened around the country from time to time,” adding that heavier downpours usually washed pole top dust away. He said showers in the state’s southwest had brought some relief to fire fighting efforts. Hot weather and strong winds had fuelled several bushfires in WA, including one in the Wheatbelt region that had burnt about 11,000ha by Saturday afternoon.
