Originally posted by ChiefPam:
What I heard about the Australian fires is that they would not have raged so out of control if trees and brush had been pruned and thinned out, but the local environmentalists wouldn't allow it.
I have no doubt that's partly true but the fact is that Australia has been in a terrible drought for many years and these fires were ultimately the result of that drought. We get no rain - I heard a couple of days ago that the official average January rainfall for my state is 25mm. This year we had less than 1mm. I don't think we've had any so far in February.
You just have to drive in the country - or even my city, which is known for its beautiful parks - to know that a dropped match will have disastrous effects. There is *no* green. Everything is dead.
The weather this summer has been unbelievable. 110-115F for days on end. Terrible winds and lightning. Combine those three and you have a perfect storm.
When I was growing up (1980s-'90s), 40C was a hot day. Today, 44C is considered hot. Experts are saying that in the near future, 50C days will not be uncommon. Something has very definitely changed. 2 weeks ago we had 43-46C weather for about a week. On the day it finally dropped down to 38C, people were walking around commenting to complete strangers about how lovely the cooler weather was. It's insanity.
Dozens of people dropped dead from heat in my city (with a population of only 1 million) a couple of weeks ago. The city morgue did not have room to take all the dead and a temporary facility had to be set up. This is not normal weather.
Combine the intense heat and fires in the southeast with the terrible flooding in the north - and over the last couple of days, the east - and you have a country with weather that is quite simply out of control.
The population of Australia is only slightly over 21 million. 200+ were killed and more than 2000 homes were lost last week to fire - by a percentage of the population, that's the equivalent of about 2,900 Americans killed and 29,000 American homes burnt down. This has been an horrific summer and it has had a profound impact on everyone I have spoken to.
Bec
