2024–25 Australian bushfire season

The 2024–25 Australian bushfire season is the current summer season of bushfires in Australia. At the beginning of the season temperatures had been above average to high above average for most regions, with parts of Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland experiencing highest on record maximum temperatures for the winter period. August 2024 overall in Australia was the warmest August on record.

In spring, there continued to be an increased likelihood of unusually high maximum temperatures across most of Australia, and increased chance of above average rainfall for much of New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania. Large parts of Western Australia had an increased chance of below average rainfall. Unseasonal rainfall in Queensland and Northern Territory led to increased fuel loads. August also saw above average to well above average rainfall in both southwest Western Australia and Tasmania, easing dry conditions in these regions.

Fire authorities advised that overall main areas of increased risk of bushfire in Australia at the start of the bushfire season were most parts of the Northern Territory, large areas of northern and central Queensland, and also western Victoria as well as parts of southeastern South Australia.

On 1 February the Bureau of Meteorology announced that Victoria would swelter through a severe heat wave with temperatures up to 43 °C in Mildura.

On 27 February the AFAC identified heightened risk of bushfires from risk of fire for parts of WA, South Australia and Victoria . In WA, increased risk of fire is identified for areas between Perth and Carnarvon, and stretching eastwards across much of the Australian mainland’s southern coastline through SA and reaching all the way to southwest Gippsland in Victoria. AFAC CEO Rob Webb said: “The same dry conditions that have seen recent fires in Victoria and in WA look set to continue across much of the southern coastline of mainland Australia.”