Worst Wildfires in Chile's History Smoke from forest fires is seen rising above a town called Pumanque in the O’Higgins region of Chile on January 20, 2017. Jan 26, 2017 - 24 Photos The Chilean government has asked for international assistance and declared a state of emergency in some southern regions, after the worst forest fires in the nation’s history have destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of forest, forced thousands to flee, and burned villages and farms to the ground. Decades of drought have worsened this year’s fire season, leading to as many as 85 major fires burning concurrently across Chile today, overwhelming local agencies. https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/01/worst-wildfires-in-chiles-history/514583/ [with comments]
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Death toll rises as wildfire wipes out Chilean town of Santa Olga Santa Olga has been left in ruins as ferocious fires continue to ravage Chile. Large bushfires have devastated wide swaths of the South American country since November, killing 10 and displacing thousands. 27.01.2017 http://www.dw.com/en/death-toll-rises-as-wildfire-wipes-out-chilean-town-of-santa-olga/a-37295124 [with embedded video]
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The Worst Wildfires in Chile’s History Revealed in Pictures Smoke billows from a forest fire around Valparaiso, in the country's biggest blaze in recent history. A number of factors have conspired against the central region of Chile, resulting in 77 active wildfires and 714,000 acres burned. January 27, 2017 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/01/chile-wildfires-photos/ [no comments yet]
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Chile wildfires: At least 11 die in catastrophe The town of Santa Olga was wiped out by the wildfires. A woman wipes tears amid the remains of Santa Olga, a small town ravaged by the fires. Officials looking into what caused them Experts from abroad helping out Updated January 28, 2017 http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/27/americas/chile-wildfires/index.html [with embedded video]
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Antarctic sea ice used to be the darling of climate doubters. Not anymore. February 16, 2017 In recent years, one of climate change doubters’ favorite arguments has involved the floating sea ice around Antarctica. It’s growing, they contended — and that raises doubts about our understanding of human-induced climate change. To this, climate scientists always responded: Not so fast. Floating sea ice in another cold place, the Arctic, is clearly shrinking, as are Arctic and Antarctic glaciers, and we don’t fully understand all the drivers behind the vast and complex Antarctic sea ice system. So don’t leap to the conclusion that odd behavior in floating Antarctic ice, which indeed has been growing slightly [ https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-study-shows-global-sea-ice-diminishing-despite-antarctic-gains ] in recent years, undermines climate concerns. Now, though, the argument for doubters just got even more complicated. After seeing a record high [ https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/antarctic-sea-ice-reaches-new-record-maximum/ ] for total extent in the year 2014, Antarctic sea ice had been running very low in late 2016 and early 2017. And now, as of data [ http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/ ] recorded on Monday and Tuesday by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the extent of Antarctic sea ice now appears to have hit a record low (although scientists still have to confirm this and have not made an official announcement yet). It’s summer in Antarctica right now, and floating sea ice on Monday only covered 2.287 million square kilometers, according to “near-real-time data [ http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/ ]” from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. If that’s correct, that would barely edge out the previous record low of 2.290 million square kilometers on Feb. 27, 1997. The records go back to 1979. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/02/16/antarctic-sea-ice-used-to-be-the-darling-of-climate-doubters-not-anymore/ [with comments]
Greek wildfires: dry winter and strong winds led to tinderbox conditions
-------- "U.S. scientists officially declare 2016 the hottest year on record. That makes three in a row. " --------
Experts call for better forest management and focus on prevention after blaze that killed more than 70 people
Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent
Tue 24 Jul 2018 12.35 EDT Last modified on Tue 24 Jul 2018 12.36 EDT
Firefighters and volunteers try to extinguish a fire in Penteli, north Athens. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
An unusually dry winter, with less than average rainfall interspersed with localised flooding in some areas, is emerging as a major contributing factor to the wildfires that are ravaging the mainland of Greece.
[...]
The current heatwave across Europe and much of the northern hemisphere could be seen as “a foretaste of what weather extremes we are threatened by as the climate crisis progresses”, said Charalambides.
Growing more trees and managing forests properly would help to make the land more resilient to droughts, heatwaves and fires, he added. Forests also act as a cooling factor on the local climate and support a range of biodiversity.
Charalambides also called for a greater focus on the prevention of fires in Greece in place of a traditional focus on boosting firefighting capacity. Alongside this, there should be more emphasis on drawing up plans for evacuation in the case of disaster, particularly in areas where pine forests are near to human habitation.
* June rainfall was below average for most of Australia, and very much below average for parts of the east coast
* The start of the southern wet season has been drier than average
* Rainfall deficiencies persist in both the east and west of the country, increasing in the east at the 6- and 15-month timescales, and along the west coast at the 15-month timescale
* Lower-layer soil moisture was below average for June across most of New South Wales, the southern half of Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory, the Kimberley and the south of Western Australia
Rainfall deficiencies increase for the east after drier than average June
June rainfall was below average for the Kimberley and the southwestern quarter of Western Australia, most of the Northern Territory, and large parts of South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland. Rainfall for the month was in the lowest 10% of historical observations (decile 1) for some parts of the eastern mainland, with the largest area of decile 1 rainfall observed in the North West Slopes and Plains and Northern Tablelands districts inland of the Great Dividing Range in northeastern New South Wales.
Above average June rainfall over the northwest of Western Australia has alleviated deficiencies in the coastal southeast of the Pilbara and northeastern Gascoyne. Elsewhere, deficiencies persist, and have increased over large parts of eastern Australia and agricultural South Australia at both the 6- and 15-month timescales. http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/drought/
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United States Drought Monitor
Map for July 19, 2018
Data valid: July 17, 2018 | Author: Curtis Riganti, National Drought Mitigation Center
INTERACTIVE MAP
The data cutoff for Drought Monitor maps is each Tuesday at 8 a.m. EDT. The maps, which are based on analysis of the data, are released each Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap.aspx
While the U.S.A. is headed by global warming deniers the world continues to dry and burn.
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