时间:2025-04-03 17:06:04 来源:网络整理编辑:休閑
Back in early November, David Bowman had a bad feeling about Australia's thriving wildfires.The ingr
Back in early November, David Bowman had a bad feeling about Australia's thriving wildfires.
The ingredients for bushfire hell had come together. The forests were exceptionally dry. There was no hint of meaningful rain. Winds howled through the country. And it was getting hotter. Eventually, Australia broke its record for its hottest day ever — two days in a row.
"I said 'this is unprecedented'," recalled Bowman, a professor of pyrogeography and fire science at the University of Tasmania. "The whole system was set up to burn."
It has.
Fires have burned over three million acres of Eastern Australia bushland, including the 1.2-million-acre Gospers Mountain megafire northwest of Sydney, labeled "out of control" by the region's fire agency, the New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Service. That's nearly the size of Grand Canyon National Park, and larger than Rhode Island. The Syndey Morning Herald called Gospers a "monster" fire, and notes it's now the largest forest fire to start from a single ignition point in Australian history (there have been larger grass fires).
Australia always burns in the summer. But not like this. "With these conditions, any fire can get big and out of control," said Christine Wiedinmyer, the associate director for science at the University of Colorado Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science. "These fires are gigantic."
Tweet may have been deleted
Tweet may have been deleted
And the blaze isn't going away anytime soon. The fire could burn for another six weeks, or longer, said Bowman.
"There's no end in sight," he said. "There’s plenty of action left in this fire season. This is historic."
From afar, the lengthy, historic blazes have smoked out the nation's most populous city, Sydney, at times creating air pollution levels 11 times that of the "hazardous" threshold. The fires are difficult for many Australians to comprehend or describe.
"The vocabulary is exhausted," said Bowman. "Words are exhausted. Emotions are exhausted."
"Words are exhausted."
Bowman said the fires have essentially ringed the greater Sydney area. In communities along the fringe of the Gospers and other fires, the National Rural Service is fighting to protect lives and property from persistent flames. Some 829 homes have burned, but 7,310 have been saved.
"There’s going to be no Christmas for [firefighters]," he said.
Like all wildfires, the Gospers blaze and other fires are the product of both weather and climate — and Australia's climate has warmed significantly since 1950, according to the Australian government's Department of Environment. That means more fire weather, and more parched trees. Fire conditions depend on wind, dryness of vegetation, air temperature, and humidity. In particular, these Australian blazes have been getting a boost from exceptional heat and dryness. Then, add some wind, and all you need is a spark. The same thing happened in California last summer.
"It's the dryness," said Bowman. "The fuels [vegetation] are incredibly dry and burning really efficiently."
Australia's national science research agency, CSIRO, would not comment on the Gospers Mountain Fire, but did refer Mashable to its research on Australian wildfires. "The frequency and severity of fire weather has increased over recent decades," the agency says. "We predict many regions will see a significant increase in the highest levels of fire danger in the year [sic] ahead."
Tweet may have been deleted
Tweet may have been deleted
Australian fire weather, particularly in eastern Australia, has been extreme this year. "The continent just got hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter," said Bowman.
What's more, rainfall has been low in Australia this year, thanks to shifts in a climate cycle called the Indian Ocean Dipole, resulting in fewer clouds and storms forming near Australia. This means drought. And drought plus extreme heat means forests and grasslands are turned to kindling.
As is commonly the case, climate change boosts the odds for extreme weather or conditions, be it floods, fires, or the extreme melting of ice sheets.
While most Australians aren't literally in the path of Australia's flames, between one-third to a half of the Australian population can't escape its consequences, namely smoke saturated with tiny particles from burnt vegetation and homes, said Bowman.
SEE ALSO:The oceans absorbed an unfathomable amount of heat this decadeThese particles, called PM 2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in size), are the type of air pollution we see from fires, explained Boulder's Wiedinmyer. This pollution shrouded Sydney's famous opera house earlier this month. "It's the air pollution we know most impacts our health," Wiedinmyer said.
It's terrible for breathing. The fine particulate matter is often many times thinner than a strand of human hair. Both U.S. government and university researchers have repeatedly shown that breathing this stuff is bad for your heart. It's linked to an acceleration of plaque build-up in blood vessels.
Australians can anticipate more terrible to hazardous air, saturated with remnants of burnt forests. The nation's Bureau of Meteorology expects "to see a continuation of the warmer and drier than average conditions experienced throughout spring."
The smoke is horrid. "It's tarnishing the Australian tourist brand," said Bowman. "There’s an enormous amount of social anxiety, grief, confusion, and despair."
"People are seeing in real-time the places they love distort in front of them," he said.
This weird squid looks like it has googly eyes, guys2025-04-03 17:00
【波盈足球】 世足摩洛哥中場展現驚人速度 狂奔大半球場成功鏟斷姆巴佩 ( 拉巴,摩洛哥 )2025-04-03 16:55
【波盈足球】 世足真的被法國拋棄了? 本澤馬IG發文「我沒有興趣」 ( 法國,冠軍賽 )2025-04-03 16:55
世界杯 突尼斯vs法國 波蘭vs阿根廷 荷蘭依舊比較輕鬆 法國爆冷(阿根廷2:0卡塔爾)2025-04-03 16:31
Two astronauts just installed a new parking spot on the International Space Station2025-04-03 16:02
世界杯 突尼斯vs法國 波蘭vs阿根廷 荷蘭依舊比較輕鬆 法國爆冷(阿根廷2:0卡塔爾)2025-04-03 15:30
葡韓舊仇未了又添新恨!葡萄牙再負韓國 ,C國豎指讓閉嘴被罵雙標(韓國隊葡萄牙恩怨)2025-04-03 15:25
【波盈足球】 世足阿根廷主帥貼心安排 梅西有室友可以陪聊天了 ( 梅西,美聯社 )2025-04-03 15:24
Florida hurricane forecast remains uncertain, but trends in state's favor2025-04-03 14:43
C羅辟謠離隊 !還有一堆紀錄要破!尤文為留他甚至可能賣迪巴拉 !(葡萄牙足協辟謠c羅威脅離隊教練)2025-04-03 14:26
This 'sh*tpost' bot makes terrible memes so you don't have to2025-04-03 16:46
葡萄牙6比1瑞士晉級8強!拉莫斯帽子戲法!C羅替補!(歐洲杯法國進16強了嗎)2025-04-03 16:40
【波盈足球】 世足法國姆巴佩拋「歐洲優越論」 阿根廷球員不服 ( 阿根廷,南美 )2025-04-03 16:39
冰與火之歌|卡塔爾世界杯小組賽第二輪結束,3支球隊提前晉級(世界杯小組賽幾場比賽)2025-04-03 16:02
Fyvush Finkel, Emmy winner for 'Picket Fences,' dies at 932025-04-03 15:27
萊萬無憾 ?(梅西談萊萬)2025-04-03 15:21
德國隊公布 2022 卡塔爾世界杯大名單 ,羅伊斯因傷落選,如何評價這份名單 ?德國隊能走多遠 ?(歐洲杯德國進16強了嗎)2025-04-03 15:14
卡塔爾世界杯32強名單全部出爐!請收藏 !(卡塔爾世界杯亞洲12強賽什麽時候開始)2025-04-03 14:50
Dressage horse dancing to 'Smooth' by Santana wins gold for chillest horse2025-04-03 14:36
德國隊無緣16強 !日本隊2:1驚天逆轉西班牙隊!本屆世界杯首個烏龍球誕生!(2021年歐洲四強)2025-04-03 14:32