The 2014 Eden Valley fire threatened several townships when it rapidly spread overnight on 17 January. The exceptional meteorological conditions that preceded this fire and contributed to its rapid spread are expected to occur more frequently in this region of South Australia under a warming climate. Understanding how these conditions evolved will assist responders and policy makers adapt to new forms of extreme fire behaviour.

During the morning of 17 January 2014 the Eden Valley bushfire ignited in grassland in the Mount Lofty Ranges, owing to flare-up from a fire started by lightning on 14 January. Severe fire danger conditions with temperatures near 40 °C, relative humidity below 20% and moderate north-westerly winds enabled the fire to quickly spread south-eastwards. Around 7pm, after the fire burnt an area of approximately 4000 hectares, the winds shifted southerly and increased dramatically. The gale-force southerly winds were observed to exceed 63 km/h^-1 for more than one hour and peak at 90 km/h^-1. The fire drove rapidly northwards overnight, burning approximately 20,000 hectares and threatening several towns. By the evening of 18 January the fire had burnt a total of 24,246 hectares with a perimeter of 136 kilometres.

The fire behaviour, which allowed such a large area to be burned in a very short amount of time, was driven by exceptional meteorological conditions. The hotter and drier than average conditions leading into January 2014 and the extreme heatwave that affected the state in the week of January 13-17 likely helped to precondition the fuels for burning. The continually evolving cold front then eventually produced a surging southerly surface wind that drove the fire rapidly northwards, while the upper north-westerly winds transported raised embers to the south-east in contrast to the main fire spread.