Yeah, it looks like Taipei on a bad day out there at the moment.

Today we're going back into the danger zone - temps above 40C with increasing winds and over 100 fires going across the state.

Still not a single question from the media as to how these fires started in the first place. Apart from that, the media hysteria is in full-swing.

The fact is, these fires were deliberately lit. They are the result of an out of control 'Permit Burn' system that allowed farmers to light over 100 fires across the state, as conditions worsened, and without ever putting them out. My guess is that they have been doing this for years and used to rely on seasonal November/December storms to extinguish them but this year the rains didn't come. Well they did, but not with quite enough volume to douse the 100 or so fires they'd deliberately lit. Then conditions really turned ugly.

Now the Queensland rural fire authority keeps talking about the 'unprecedented' conditions. The thing is, for the last 20 years there's been a bit in the news about this concept called 'climate change'. 'Unprecedented' is the new 'precedented'. It's disingenuous to say 'oh, who knew?'

The other weird thing is that the Queensland fire authorities still haven't called a Total Fire Ban throughout this fiasco - even when conditions were rated as 'Catastrophic'. We had one Total Fire Ban day back in August, but nothing since. Traditionally, late winter has been the fire season here coz it's the time of no rain and high winds, but for some reason the fire authorities can't make the mental switch that things have changed. 'Stupid' is a word that springs to mind. Now, having caused these fires, the same people are in charge of strategy for putting them out - doesn't fill me with confidence.