Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Submission Preview

Link to Story

Relief as rain falls over Australian bushfires

Accepted submission by exec at 2020-01-17 00:31:22
News

Story automatically generated by StoryBot Version 0.2.2 rel Testing.
Storybot ('Arthur T Knackerbracket') has been converted to Python3

Note: This is the complete story and will need further editing. It may also be covered
by Copyright and thus should be acknowledged and quoted rather than printed in its entirety.

FeedSource: [PhysOrg]

Time: 2020-01-16 08:01:27 UTC

Original URL: https://phys.org/news/2020-01-relief-falls-australian-bushfires.html [phys.org] using UTF-8 encoding.

Title: Relief as rain falls over Australian bushfires

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- Entire Story Below --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Relief as rain falls over Australian bushfires

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story [phys.org]:


                                                 
                                                      Click here to sign in with

                                                                      or

                                                 
                                             


                                                  Forget Password? [sciencex.com]
                                             

                                                      Learn more [sciencex.com]
                                             

share this!

46

12

Share

Email


                                                                                                January 16, 2020

                                                                                       

Heavy rain fell across parts of fire-ravaged eastern Australia on Thursday and more wet weather was forecast, giving some relief following months of catastrophic blazes fuelled by climate change.

               

               
                googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1449240174198-2'); });
               
               

                                                                                                                                                                           

The fires, unprecedented for Australia in terms of duration and intensity, have claimed 28 lives and killed an estimated billion animals.

Sustained hot weather [phys.org] and rare periods of light rain in the affected areas have deepened the crisis.

Downpours on Thursday in the state of New South Wales, where many of the worst fires have burnt, offered hope that dozens of blazes could be brought under control.

"Relief is here for a number of firefighters working across NSW," the state's Rural Fire Service said in a social media post accompanying footage of rain falling in a burning forest.

"Although this rain won't extinguish all fires, it will certainly go a long way towards containment."

Before the rains, there were 30 blazes burning out of control in New South Wales.

Along the south coast of the state, locals who witnessed towns and forests being destroyed in recent weeks expressed cautious hope.

"We're thrilled and so relieved to have some dampness in the air because it makes things safe for a little while," Virginia Connor told AFP near the town of Nowra.

"But we need more, we need lots more."

Smoke from bushfires choked the southern city of Melbourne from Monday to Wednesday, disrupting the build-up to next week's Australian Open tennis tournament.

But thunderstorms late Wednesday cleared the smoke, with the wet weather [phys.org] moving east throughout Thursday towards fires in the southern state of Victoria.

"Storms have improved air quality in most parts of the state," the Victorian Environment Protection Agency said.

More rain [phys.org] was forecast for Friday and the weekend which, if it does fall, would be the most sustained period of wet weather [phys.org] since the crisis began in September last year.

Still, with January, February and March typically seeing some of the hottest weather in Australia, the bushfire crisis was far from over.

"We still have a long way to go," said Robyn Duell, a senior climatologist with the Bureau of Meteorology.

"And with higher temperatures [phys.org], we'll continue to see an elevated risk of bushfires as we move through summer and early autumn."

This week's rains could also make battles harder for firefighters in some cases, by making it harder for trucks to venture deep into forests on muddy tracks, authorities warned.

Flash floods are another concern, with scorched mountains unable to hold the water and potentially sending torrents of muddy ash into waterways.

Australia endures bushfires every year, but they started much earlier than normal in 2019 and have lasted far longer.

Forests and farming land were already extremely dry due to a prolonged drought, providing the foundations for the fire [phys.org] crisis when extreme hot weather hit well before the start of the southern summer.

Australia experienced its driest and hottest year on record in 2019, with its highest average maximum temperature of 41.9 degrees Celsius (107.4 degrees Fahrenheit) recorded in mid-December.

The fires have destroyed more than 2,000 homes and burnt 10 million hectares (25 million acres) of land—an area larger than South Korea or Portugal.

Scientists say the bushfires are the type of extreme disaster the world can expect more of as global warming intensifies.

The past decade was the hottest on record globally, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

"What's happening is persistent, not a fluke due to some weather phenomenon," said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which provided one of the datasets for the UN report.

"We know that the long-term trends are being driven by the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Explore further


                                                                                                © 2020 AFP
                                                                                       

Facebook

Twitter

Email

Feedback to editors

6 hours ago

8 hours ago

8 hours ago

8 hours ago

Jan 15, 2020

4 hours ago

4 hours ago

4 hours ago

4 hours ago

5 hours ago

5 hours ago

6 hours ago

6 hours ago

6 hours ago

6 hours ago

23 hours ago

Jan 15, 2020

Jan 11, 2020

Jan 09, 2020

Jan 09, 2020

Jan 09, 2020


                                                        More from Earth Sciences [physicsforums.com]
                                                 

Jan 14, 2020

Jan 09, 2020

Jan 11, 2020

Dec 18, 2019

Dec 19, 2019

Jan 07, 2020

Jan 15, 2020

Jan 14, 2020

Jan 14, 2020

Jan 14, 2020

Jan 14, 2020

Jan 14, 2020

Thank you for taking your time to send in your valued opinion to Science X editors.
                                                       

You can be assured our editors closely monitor every feedback sent and will take appropriate actions. Your opinions are important to us.
                                                       

We do not guarantee individual replies due to extremely high volume of correspondence.
                                               


                                                                                        Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose.
                                                                                        The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Phys.org in any form.
                                                                               


                                        Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox.
                                        You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties.
                               

                                        More information [sciencex.com]
                                        Privacy policy [sciencex.com]
                               

Medical Xpress covers all medical research advances and health news

Tech Xplore covers the latest engineering, electronics and technology advances

Science X Network offers the most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web


                        This site uses cookies to assist with navigation, analyse your use of our services, and provide content from third parties.
                            By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy [sciencex.com]
                            and Terms of Use [sciencex.com].
               

-- submitted from IRC


Original Submission