It is bushfire season in Southeastern Australia and yesterday, Thursday 22nd of February, the temperature maximum in Melbourne approached 40˚C. In the Northwest of the state, the temperatures were higher. In Beaufort, a small town near Ballarat, a bushfire started and in a day had burnt 5000 hectares (50 km2) of bushland, with homes and farms destroyed. Today, 10,000 hectares had been burnt and the fire is still burning.
The sky in Melbourne yesterday afternoon was brownish red with a red sun on account of the smoke high in the atmosphere. Fortunately a cool change came through with some rain and things went back to normal in the City. However, while it lasted, the unearthly, apocalyptic light and the red sun was quite frightening. Our climate is changing, our deforestation progresses at an alarming rate and such horrific and catastrophic events are now becoming more and more common and severe.
About 1000 firefighters and dozens of aircraft are still battling (Friday night) an uncontrolled bushfire burning around the Pyrenees Ranges in regional Victoria to Ballarat’s west. The towns of Elmhurst and Amphitheatre on the Pyrenees Highway remain under threat as winds continue to push the fire north-east. It is heart-breaking that farming communities have to evacuate farms and properties, leaving their livestock behind, with no guarantee they will have a home and property to come back to. Even sadder that some of these small farmers have no insurance...
This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme
Great shots.
ReplyDeleteEven though most cities have experienced hotter and colder weather events in the past, Climate Change means the changes are more extreme now. And the changes cannot be stopped. The floods in Qld, the 50c heat in WA and the bushfires in Victoria are very frightening
ReplyDeleteWildfires always make for beautiful sky shots, but what a tragedy for the famers and their animals. I love in Colorado in the U.S. and we have our share of wildfires here too. I pray for rain and safety for the firefighters.
ReplyDeleteThose skies look all too familiar. Both beautiful and filled with dread.
ReplyDeleteWhen my American friends visit Australia, they are most afraid of our snakes, spiders and jellyfish. I, on the other hand, are most afraid of our Victorian bushfires.
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