The bushfire risk for parts of southeast Australia has jumped with a warning some areas will not have sufficient fire fighting resources.
The Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre says an exceptionally dry spring has forced it to revise the bushfire risk for some areas.
It says more parts of south eastern Australia, including Tasmania, are now likely to experience above normal fire conditions.
"In these areas, it is more likely that the resources required to fight bushfires from within a region will be insufficient, with resources required from other areas of an affected state, interstate and possibly overseas," the CRC said in its update.
Its report said large areas of South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and NSW had received less than 20 per cent of their average rainfall for September and October.
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The low rainfall had contributed to a rapid and early drying of vegetation while many areas had also experienced record high temperatures.
The CRC said the climate forecast for the period from November to January was for increased rainfall as the strong El Nino weather event in the Pacific Ocean begins to decline.
But it said any increase in rain was unlikely to cut the fire risk across the southeast of the country because most areas were already extremely dry.
