Weather Channel creates bushfire doco

Tim Burrowes

April 15, 2009 12:54

The Weather Channel has made one if its biggest programming investments to date in creating a documentary about the Black Saturday bushfires disaster.

Forecast For Disaster, which will air on the pay TV channel at 6.30pm on May 2, explains the weather conditions behind Australia’s worst-ever bushfires in Victoria earlier this year.

Narrated by Australian actor John Wood, it details how the weather created a storm of destruction that saw Black Saturday’s bushfires on February 7 claim more than 170 lives .

In Forecast for Disaster, The Weather Channel’s meteorological experts, survivors, fire scientists and the Country Fire Authority’s chief officer Russell Rees describe the weather that day and the lead up to it. The documentary includes exclusive material from bushfire survivors, CFA footage and The Weather Channel’s own coverage of events.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.