Live moment: ‘Trifecta’ of severe weather predicted for South Australia the ‘worst combination’ for power outages

Catastrophic bushfire danger, thunderstorms and wind gusts of up to 100 kilometres per hour tomorrow could cause bushfires that would be “incredibly difficult” to control, the SA Country Fire Service (CFS) warns.

SA Power Networks said the Country Fire Service has forecast catastrophic bushfire conditions for the eastern Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula, Mid North, Flinders and the Riverland and extreme conditions in the Mt Lofty Ranges and Murraylands for Friday.

The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts those conditions to be quickly followed by lightning strikes and wind of up to 100 kph in some parts of the state.

CFS chief officer Brett Loughlin said forecast conditions would mean that if a bushfire starts it would be hard to control, and that aerial firefighting equipment might not be able to help extinguish fires.

“Waiting for a fire to start in your area is very likely to be too late under the forecast conditions tomorrow,” Mr Loughlin said.

“I want to stress the forecast winds tomorrow are such that there is likely to be times when our aircraft will be unable to safely fly and fight fires.

“It is crucial that people do not rely on firefighters and our aviation assets to save them.”

SA Power Network’s Paul Roberts said tomorrow’s predicted weather conditions were “the worst combination possible” for causing outages.

“We will be juggling our response between setting the network up to minimise the risk of fire starts and managing outage risk from storm impacts,” he said.

The Bureau of Meteorology said Friday’s conditions are expected to be followed by more than a month’s worth of rain from Saturday to Sunday.

“We could see falls reaching 40 to 70 millimetres in parts across the Eyre Peninsula,” senior meteorologist Mark Anolak said.

“For the southern agricultural area we generally see on average for December rainfall totals of 20 to 30 millimetres — so this rainfall event that’s coming through on Sunday could see more than our monthly average rainfall, falling in one little area of the state.”

Mr Anolak said as the low pressure system moves easterly, Adelaide and the Mount Lofty Ranges could receive between 10 to 30 millimetres of downpour but the exact total rainfall would be hard to predict.

“The exact location of where that low pressure system spins around and moves around is like a spinning top on a table — it has its own mind,” he said.

It comes more than a week after severe thunderstorms ripped through central Adelaide, damaging homes and flooding suburban streets.

In 2016, South Australia was hit by a statewide blackout after twin tornadoes ripped through the Mid North, damaging critical power infrastructure.

Multiple fire warnings with heatwave conditions

Before the weather turns though, the state’s Mid North, Flinders, North West Pastoral and North East Pastoral Districts face more than 24 hours of heatwave conditions.

“We do have a severe heatwave warning for northern parts of the state and that will continue for the next couple of days probably until Saturday before it finally clears out to the east,” Mr Anolak said.

“Very hot conditions today leading into a very hot, dry and windy day tomorrow, which will see elevated fire danger ratings.”

Port Pirie on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf is forecast to experience its hottest day on record in 43 years on Friday, with a top of 45 degrees Celsius.

On Wednesday, the owner of the Marree Hotel in the state’s north, Phil van Wegan said he took out his personal thermometer while he was working in the sun and recorded temperatures of up to 54 degrees.

“She’s [the weather] come in pretty warm … and we”ve been doing a fair bit of work around the pub at the moment,” Mr van Wegan said.

“So we thought we’d stick the thermometer out over the road and yeah it was well over that 50 degrees mark.”

Some local events have been cancelled due to the predicted extreme weather on the weekend including the annual Gawler Carols, north of Adelaide.