2009 Victorian bushfires
Most of the fires began and spread on a day of some of the worst bushfire weather ever recorded. The temperature in Victoria reached 46 degrees Celsius and wind speed was more than 100 km/h. The wind blew the fires over large distances and areas, creating large firestorms. North-east of Melbourne, a single firestorm killed 120 people. A cool change came to the state in the early evening. It had gale force south-westerly winds of more than 120 km/h. This change in wind direction caused the long eastern sides of the fires to become wide fire fronts. These burned quickly towards towns that were not in the bushfires yet.