NZFF

Going by the amount of smoke to the North of our place , there seems to be major fire toward Hallswell .

Yeah ! wrong time .. wrong wind .. been going three hours now.

Ian , have you seen the port hills ? .... Ive never seen them so dry.
Scary stuff . Not wanting to take anything away from Australia ... but , man its dry.

Interesting to note , while i was watching that smoke at sunset .... it reaches a point (altitude) where it changes from smoke into a white cloud.

Seen it before .. Don't Worry , We will have our own Personal NZFF Super Hero up there in the action , ..... 'Ian White' The Quiet One AKA 'Whitei'

Must be close to under control ... just a three Helo's return to the nest unless its a refuel .. this time of the night , don't think so.

Wildfire?... ...!

...anything on the local NZ news?

Paul..... ...!

...this one?....>>> http://www.nzherald.co.nz/fires/news/ar ... d=11799712

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/ ... awke's-bay

We will find out tomorrow , was a quick report on the 6.00 news , I noticed it around 4.45 thought another Southerly but going the wrong direction 'CLICK' .. fire

Nothing 0700 this morning but the wind has picked up and its away again with strong Westers all day.
http://www.metservice.com/towns-cities/ ... ristchurch
Obviously still going but found extra fuel causing the smoke pillar.

I took this shot last night from my front lawn around 9pm. Thought some of you might be interested - and it's aviation related as there's a helicopter in there too


Please excuse the noise due to an underexposed 10000 ISO shot

.

Hell of a shot from where you are .. BAZZOOKA , 155mm Howitzer camera really hooking into it , had Fletcher/Cresco bombers all morning and it finally looks like they have shut it down.

Another from this afternoon, it has flared up a bit once more. It seems that this will continue burning for another day or two. These are taken from 7km away so a bit soft at this magnification what with the atmospheric distortion and optical limitations of the lens combinations.

, a pilot has died fighting it.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/ ... ims-a-life

CRAP ! .. Just heard myself Nick !

Yes , very sad .

A bad do.

Google Mapping the area, and watching the news!

Paul.

New Zealand has Wildfires....

...California has Floods!

Sacramento Valley:

Lake Orville Dam in danger of breaching due to heavy rains over the recent months!...>>>

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Evac ... 27&em=true

Recalling a similar disaster in 1928....>>>

St. Francis Dam collapse in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles:

http://www.citylab.com/politics/2015/03 ... am/387457/

Paul.

By compare the Australian bush fires, the Port hills fire is only match stick by any size, when the Aussie fires get going we get the smoke here in Christchurch , when flying to Australia at 35,000 you fly threw jetstreams of smoke many times and you can pick when it gets intense simply by the thicker stream and colour change.

I've just come in from the shop , good thing the wind has changed to easterly, from what I'm seeing , looks like the fire has jumped into the Craycroft Valley !

Not good at all ... what a shame they can't put a big water bladder in the back of a herc or two and kill this thing.
I know the choppers are doing their best , but jeez ... i think these guys are out of their depth now.