The bushfire has been over 40,000 square kilometers (pictured in the Australian newspaper)
It is one of the worst fire seasons in australia, killing at least 23 people, destroying thousands of houses, burning tens of thousands of sq km of land and killing hundreds of millions of animals. The fire burned from 2019 until 2020, however, the summer is far from over.
Tens of thousands of residents and vacationers in south-east australia were forced to evacuate their beaches last week as bushfires surrounded the community and razed dozens of buildings, one of the largest evacuations in australia`s history. On wednesday, warships and planes moved to deliver water, food and fuel to towns cut off by the fires.
It`s nothing new to see a hot, dry environment fuelling fires in Australia, where the 2009 Victorian bushfire caused 173 dead and tens of thousands of homeless people, but this summer the blazes were well ahead of that year. Here`s why this fire season is so scary.
Australia saw its driest spring on record last year (Australia Meteorological Agency)
1. What caused the fire?
Record high temperatures, persistent droughts and strong winds combined to cause catastrophic fires.
On December 17, much of Australia was hit by a strong heat wave, the hottest day on record, with an average maximum temperature of 40.9°C, and just two days later the record was again broken, with the average maximum reaching a staggering 41.9°C. Hopetoun, northeastern Virginia, hit 47.4°C on the afternoon of December 20, breaking its record-high temperature in state history, while on January 3 this year, temperatures in the Penrith region of New State soared to 48.9°C, making it the hottest in the world on the day.
Last spring, Australia welcomed the driest spring ever recorded. The average temperature of the whole spring was 2.4℃ higher than the historical average temperature. When the hot and water-deficient spring passed, Australia was extremely hot in summer. Since the beginning of 2017, most parts of New State and Kunzhou have suffered from insufficient rainfall. The drought hit the country’s most productive agricultural area, including some burning areas.
There are still 150 forest fires in the new state (ABC Chart)
How big is the fire
In early September, Australia began to show ominous signs of a fire season. On September 9, Binna Burra Lodge, a historic resort in the lush mountains of Queensland, burned in a bushfire. The damage and the surrounding rainforest fires surprised scientists, who said such fires were extremely rare in usually cool, humid areas.
Fires have broken out across the country in recent months, with Australia`s east coast hardest hit. By early November,1,500 firefighters had battled 70 fires in the new state.
On November 11, the state issued a "catastrophic" fire hazard rating, the first in a decade since the current alarm system was operational. In Sydney, where a comprehensive fire ban has been issued, smoke has caged the sky for days, and air quality has sometimes even reached the worst level in the world. On Tuesday, social media was littered with flames and people fleeing to the beach between Sydney and Melbourne.
On sunday, despite some relief from cooling and rain, there were 150 forest fires in new states and 48 in virginia.
At least a thousand homes are currently destroyed in the new state (Daily Telegraph)
3. How much damage has been caused so far?
In the new state, at least 1,482 homes,2,339 attached buildings and 100 facilities have been destroyed since last July.
More than 40,000 square kilometers of land have been burned in bushfires, twice the size of the Amazon fires and even larger than the total size of the European country of Belgium. In contrast, the 2018 California fire that shocked the world burned about 770 square kilometers of land.
At least 23 people have been killed in the inferno across Australia since the start of the current bushfire season in October, with six still missing in the fire zone, as the blaze swept through south-east Australia early last week. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned that the crisis is likely to continue for months," the fire has not been extinguished and the crisis is not over." "
Three firefighters are now killed in the New State fire (9News)
Who is fighting the fire
Tens of thousands of firefighters, the vast majority of whom are volunteers, have been working on rescue efforts for weeks, sometimes even 12 hours a day, and three have died on rescue missions. The pressure on firefighters has raised questions about the country`s reliance on volunteers.
Australia`s federal government has previously announced that fire volunteers in the new state will receive up to $6,000 in compensation and those in other states will receive compensation if requested. This policy change was initially opposed by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Australia`s government began deploying army and called on allies to help as the fire caused widespread damage. Mr Morrison said over the weekend that he would call in 3,000 IDF reservists to take part in the relief effort and send military helicopters, planes and warships to help.
Government also asked for fire-fighting planes in the united states and canada. Canada has promised to send more than 30 firefighters to help Australians.
Climate change makes vegetation more flammable and dry (News Corp. Australia)
Is climate change to blame?
The devastating start of the fire season confirmed scientists`prediction that bushfires in Australia would become more frequent and intense as climate change worsened.
Few other developed countries are as vulnerable to climate change as Australia, according to scientific reports.
Australia`s summers are usually hot and dry, but climate change brings longer, more frequent extreme high temperatures that worsen conditions and make vegetation more dry and flammable.
Catastrophe fires have heightened concern about Australia`s government`s failure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a greenhouse gas that absorbs the heat from solar radiation when it is emitted into the air, creating a greenhouse effect that raises temperatures.
Despite soaring greenhouse-gas emissions, australia, now governed by a conservative alliance, has struggled to reach a political consensus on energy and climate change policies, partly influenced by australia`s long mining history and strong coal lobby.
The fire has now become a national crisis (pictured on ABC)
How does the weather affect the fire?
Climate and weather are two different but relevant concepts. Climate refers to the expected long-term weather pattern for a particular location, while weather is a combination of various atmospheric events within a particular time and place – such as temperature, wind, and precipitation.
Climate change has led to higher temperatures in the Indian and Southern oceans, which in turn has led to drier and hotter weather across Australia this summer.
The most dangerous fires occur when hot, dry air blows from the centre of the mainland desert toward the densely populated coast. The front – the interface of different dense air masses – allows the direction of the wind to change rapidly.
The scale of bushfires can be very large and the temperature can be very high, thus creating a dangerous, unpredictable weather system on its own. These so-called fire storms can produce lightning, strong winds and even fire tornadoes. But it doesn`t cause rain.
The volunteer firefighters who died earlier were killed in a tornado that toppled the fire engine.
