No active fires in NSW for first time since July

Ben Domensino, Tuesday March 3, 2020 - 15:52 EDT

For the first time in eight months, the NSW Rural Fire Service declared on Monday that there were no active bush or grass fires in NSW.

The declaration of no active fires brings to an end more than 240 days of continuous fire activity across the state.

For the first time since early July 2019, there is currently no active bush or grass fires in #NSW. That’s more than 240 days of fire activity for the state. #nswfires #nswrfs pic.twitter.com/NpjF3lAHKa — NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) March 2, 2020

While bushfires are common in NSW between October and March, a prolonged period of unusually warm and dry weather saw an early start to the season in 2019.

Image: Thick smoke over Sydney late in 2019.

Bushfire smoke became a daily feature over NSW during the last few months of 2019, which culminated in the state's warmest and second driest December on record. This unprecedented month kicked off what would become Australia's second hottest summer on record.

A shift in weather patterns then saw some welcome rain return to parts of NSW in January and February. Despite this rain, it wasn't until Monday, March 2nd that the state's Rural Fire Service declared all had been extinguished.

At the middle of February, 5.4 million hectares of land had been burnt in NSW so far this season.

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