The bush capital will endure the strongest El Nino weather pattern in nearly two decades this season, leaving many Canberra homes at risk of bushfire over summer.
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Hotter, drier days paired with powerful winds throughout November and December mean it is unlikely last year's mild fire season will be repeated.
While tens of thousands of hectares across the ACT will be backburned, slashed and grazed coming into summer, including a seven-hectare burn near the University of Canberra which happened on Wednesday and burns in Hume, Bruce and Aranda on Thursday, high fuel loads could prove volatile as the mercury rises.
A new map is helping Canberra residents to plan for the worst by assessing their risk of bushfire.
The ACT Emergency Services Agency reveals only centralised, clustered suburbs across Canberra escape the 'bush fire prone' label.
Predictably, the heavily-vegetated Stromlo, Majura, Molonglo and Jerrabomberra regions are in the line of wildfire this season.
But suburbs fringed by nature areas and scrub around Woden Valley, Weston Creek, Belconnen and Gungahlin are also affected.
The emerging suburb of Moncrieff could be levelled should fire sweep through the Gungahlin region and more than half of the properties in Casey and Forde are also at risk.
Even inner north suburbs O'Connor, Ainslie, Lyneham, Watson, Hackett and Turner aren't immune.
ACT Rural Fire Service's chief officer Andrew Stark said any property within 150 metres of bushland or 60 metres of grassland could be in the firing line.
He recommended people in bush-fire prone suburbs practise a bushfire survival plan and prepare their home and garden.
"It's about people being aware bushfires are not just in large areas of bushland. Bushfires can occur right across Canberra," Mr Stark said.
You can download a bushfire survival plan on the ESA website.
