Monday marked the official end of Victoria's 2019/20 bushfire season.

Victoria's Country Fire Authority (CFA) lifted restrictions in the state's final district at 1am on Monday, April 27th. This officially drew to a close a long and arduous season that burnt through more than 1.5 million hectares of land across the state.

Victoria's first fire restrictions of the season came into effect in the state's East Gippsland, towards the end of September last year. Just two months later, a burst of intense fire weather in late November resulted in the state's first Code Red declaration in nearly a decade. This chart-topping fire danger rating was introduced after the devastating Black Saturday fires in 2009.

As 2019 was drawing to a close, thousands of residents and tourists were forced onto the beach near Mallacoota as fires raged across the state's east. These fires were so intense they produced thunderstorms from pyrocumulus clouds. By January 4th, strong and hot winds were fanning around 200 fires across the state.

Image: Smoke from fires in eastern Victoria being blown across the Tasman Sea in early Janaury 2020.

Fortunately, fire danger in Victoria will be suppressed in the coming months by cooler and wetter weather. Fire restrictions usually start coming into force in Victoria from around October, although as last year showed, it can happen earlier than this under the right conditions.