A total fire ban is in place for the Hunter region today, with catastrophic warnings being issued by the state's Rural Fire Service.

Several ongoing bushfires in the region are keeping fire fighting crews busy, with the largest in the region just west of Muswellbrook.

The Blackjack Mountain fire was started by lighting strikes on Sunday and has been burning in an inaccessible part of the mountain.

The Rural Fire Service is concerned today's catastrophic conditions could see the fire spread and threaten properties.

RFS spokesman Ken Hall says it is critical landholders have a bushfire survival plan in place.

"It will never happen to me is the attitude, but now it does," he said.

"Get hold of that sort of stuff and work out what you want to do well before the fire, it may never happen and hopefully nothing happens and everything is great, but if it does they are as best prepared as they can.

Everyone should be doing that, we're in October.

"We've got a long fire season ahead of us, go out and get one."

Smoke blanketing Newcastle

The RFS says heavy smoke blanketing the Newcastle region is no cause for panic and is urging people not to call '000' unless they spot a fire.

The RFS says most of the smoke has been blown to the coast from fires burning around the Muswellbrook region.

Inspector Ben Shephard says for people on the coast, there's likely to be a lot of smoke around as weather conditions worsen during the day.

"Due to these increasing north-westerly winds and an inversion that has occurred this morning that smoke is now being trapped underneath there and actually drifting all the way to the coast," he said.

"Those north-westerly winds will centre this morning so people across the day will tend to smell smoke.

"And we're just asking them not to call '000' just because they can smell the smoke, only call triple '0' if you see an unattended fire."