why are fires happening in australia?
170768
Australia's deadly fires have been fuelled by a combination of extreme heat, prolonged drought and strong winds. The country is in the grip of a heatwave, with record-breaking temperatures over the last three months. ... Authorities say that wind speeds have been recorded at 60 miles per hour.
1242221
What is a bushfire? Bushfires and grassfires are common throughout Australia. Grassfires are fast moving, passing in five to ten seconds and smouldering for minutes. They have a low to medium intensity and primarily damage crops, livestock and farming infrastructure, such as fences.
877701
This fire season has been one of the worst in Australia's history, with at least 15 people killed, hundreds of homes destroyed and millions of acres burned. And summer is far from over. ... The hot, dry conditions that have fueled the fires are nothing new in Australia. Here's why this fire season has been so calamitous.
68421
The devastating start to the fire season confirmed what scientists have been predicting: that Australia's bush fires will become more frequent and more intense as climate change worsens. Few if any other developed countries are as vulnerable to changing climate as Australia, according to scientific reports.
1059110
The loss, and the blazes in the surrounding rain forests, alarmed scientists, who said that such fires were extremely rare in the usually cool and wet area. The fires have burned across the country in recent months, affecting four out of six states. Australia's east coast has been hardest hit.
38466
Officials In Australia's New South Wales Celebrate: 'All Fires Are Now Contained' While NSW has been the worst-affected, record high temperatures and other extreme weather conditions have also led to unprecedented wildfire devastation in other regions, including Queensland and Victoria.
522878
Every state and territory in Australia has experienced fires this summer. But the biggest fires burn along stretches of the eastern and southern coast, where most of the population lives. This includes areas around Sydney and Adelaide.
473662
Currently, fires are largely burning across the states of Victoria, where Melbourne is; New South Wales, where Sydney is; and South Australia, where Adelaide is.
225337
Australia fires: Sea of fire races across field near Adelaide. As Australia's bushfires rage on, firefighters in South Australia are now battling flames near the city of Adelaide which are creating a smoky haze blanketing the region.
1108886
Australia fires: Rain finally falls on some bushfires. Australians are celebrating the arrival of much-needed rain in parts of the nation's bushfire-ravaged south-east. Though more wet weather is needed to end the fires, the rain has brought a welcome reprieve to many areas. Other parts, however, have not been as lucky ...
973430
In recent times most major bush fires have been started in remote areas by dry lightning. Some reports indicate that a changing climate could also be contributing to the ferocity of the 2019–20 fires with hotter, drier conditions making the country's fire season longer and much more dangerous.
185152
It's currently summer in Australia, and high temperatures, dry weather, and wildfires are not unusual this time of year. ... There were unique patterns in rain, temperature, and wind that converged to scorch the continent, factors that scientists were able to detect in advance.
1038600
Putting Climate Change over Land Management According to Australian Capital Territory foresters, climate change isn't to blame for Australia's fires, but “long unburnt fuels in national parks.” The same could be said of many of California's recent wildfires, as previously reported here.
607817
The main cause of fire ignitions of Australia's bushfires is dry lightning, essentially lightning from thunderstorms that don't produce rain.
383558
Fire officials in Australia are celebrating a landmark moment, saying that for the first time in what has been a horrendous wildfire season, every fire in hard-hit New South Wales is now under control. ... "Not all fires are out," Rogers added, noting that some fires are burning in the state's far south.
137347
The fires are concentrated along Australia's southeast coast, in the states of New South Wales and Victoria. The southeast is the most severely affected, but fires have also hit every Australian state and territory this season.
777997
Find out more about what they are, how they occur and facts about the ongoing bushfires in Australia. Wildfires are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as natural disasters. However, only 10-15% of them happen on their own in nature.