Dry gusty winds and unseasonably warm temperatures are leading to Severe Fire Danger in the Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney and Illawarra/Shoalhaven fire areas. A total fire ban is in place for these areas for the remainder of Wednesday. According to the RFS at 1pm EST, two fires were burning out of control in the Illawarra/Shoalhaven area near Nowra and Ulladulla. This is not too surprising, given that parts of the Illawarra are currently experiencing their highest forest fire danger index (FFDI) for August in over a decade. Winds are expected to ease during Thursday, which will tend to decrease the fire danger. Peaking ahead over the next few months, conditions look primed for an elevated bushfire risk. The latest ENSO outlook issued by the BoM maintains that there is a double than normal chance of and El Nino event developing during the upcoming spring. El Nino events are linked to warmer and drier than average conditions over southern and eastern Australia respectively, which corresponds to an increased bushfire risk.