A fire started by “frightening lightning” has burned $30,000 worth of cattle feed as parts of Queensland continue to swelter through extreme heat, fires, and storms.
Dalby farmer Ian Stark was excited to see clouds building on Saturday afternoon, hopeful he would get much-needed rain.
But instead he said his farm, about 200 kilometres west of Brisbane, suffered “an extraordinary amount of lightning”, some of which struck the ground.
“There’s photo evidence of bursts of flames on the ground and it must have been one of those that that hit our stack,” he said.
A lightning strike set fire to this stack of over 300 barley straw bales on Saturday night near Dalby. (Supplied: Ryan Rockliffe)
As the remains of his barley harvest, the stack of straw was cut and ready to go to a feedlot.
“I’m guessing there was in excess of 300 bales at $100 a bale, around about, so a $30,000 hit to the income from that fire,” Mr Stark said.
He said there were similar reports of “frightening lightning” from Dalby to Bell, 35km to the north.
The storm did bring 21 millimetres of rain which helped to contain the fire, but also made it more difficult for fire fighters to reach the blaze.
“It wet the ground and wet the remaining barley stubble around the stack, so it didn’t go anywhere,” Mr Stark said.
“It certainly didn’t put the fire out. It was a proper inferno.
“The local fire brigade couldn’t get in there on the black soil track, but I don’t think that they’d have been able to stop the fire either.”
Meteorologist Miriam Bradbury says the storm activity will spread on Tuesday. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)
With more storm activity forecast over the next few days, Mr Stark said what was really needed was good soaking rain.
“It’s quite dry at the moment at Dalby. We need 100 to 150 millimetres of rain to get a profile of moisture to make planting for grain viable,” he said.
Storm threat broadens
A broad tranche of storm activity is expected across parts of Australia’s central interior, and into Queensland’s south-east over coming days.
Senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, Miriam Bradbury, said the Darling Downs region, including Dalby, could again be in the firing line.
“We’ve got a couple of low pressure troughs, one lying through central parts of the continent and another lying through Queensland, dragging down moisture and generating these unstable conditions,” she said.
She said on Tuesday the activity spreads further south and east but with less severity, before settling later in the week.
“That includes areas like Melbourne or Sydney, although in these capitals we are more likely just to see isolated non-severe storms through tomorrow,” Ms Bradbury said.
Relentless heat
Meanwhile, residents of Forsayth, between Normanton and Cairns, have prepared to leave their homes due to a fire burning on Einasleigh Road about 7.5km away from the town.
Queensland fire inspector Nick Bloomfield said the fire was not currently threatening the town, but given the weather conditions people needed to prepare early.
“We have multiple air assets currently operating in the area and working on the leading edge of the fire,” he said.
“We also have strike teams specifically located within the township.
“There is no immediate threat to the town, but if conditions change … we need people in a state of readiness to be able to mobilise.”
Meanwhile, Queensland’s north-west interior is on track to break its November record of 10 consecutive days above 40 degrees set in 2015.
The Cattle Comfort Index provides a “feels like” temperature for livestock. (ABC News: Victoria Pengilley)
The prolonged heat prompted Queensland Health to issue a health warning for the Cape Peninsula, including advice to avoid the hottest part of the day and to stay hydrated.
“Heat stress can cause a range of health problems, including heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke,” the warning said.
Graziers too should take steps to reduce pressure on livestock, which Timothy Cowan, a senior research fellow at the University of Southern Queensland, said can struggle in unrelenting hot spells.
As part of the Northern Australia Climate Program he helped develop the Cattle Comfort Index Forecast which allows graziers to predict the impact of the weather on animals.
“It’s essentially like a ‘feels like’ temperature for cattle,” he said.
“We take predictions … of temperature, relative humidity, solar radiance, and also wind speeds, and run it through an algorithm.”
He said it can allow graziers to see how much “heat load” animals are forecast to carry in three hourly increments and allow them to make decisions to reduce the impact, such as moving them to shady paddocks or increasing the access to water.
“It’s going to be pretty warm out for the next few days, temperatures, well above 40 [degrees], then overnight it drops down to probably below 30,” he said.
“But you can see each day it builds up again, so for the next few days at least it’s [the Cattle Comfort Index] going to be pretty extreme.”
