Australian Wildfire Intensity Linked to Global Warming, Scientists Say

As an Australian and a Victorian I have seen all of these places. My cousin lives in Keilor, my Beautiful Auntie in Kinglake west, my Uncle in Whitlesea. I have seen the lichens slowly dissapear in the dry woodlands North of Melbourne, I have seen the boggy wet forest floor of the Maintains try to dust. The biggest connection I can find in all this is one thing. Back in 1980 before Ash Wednesday there were massive high pressure systems covering Australia and again, for the last ten years now the same is true. The cold southerly lows rarely bring rains in from the East but instead bring frigid air from due south. These same lows used to wash over Victoria all the way to Sydney bringing rain, now the barely reach Hobart. They have in fact moved (+/-) 700 Kl Southwards. Of the ones that do get here, they arrive and nothing happens. There is little or no rain in them and the winds are stronger, colder and reduce the once abundant fogs we used to get. The fog is the key here! Australian gum trees harvest water from fog and will drip constantly all night, all day. We had 3 decently foggy days last year in Winter. The rest were frosty and very cold followed by weeks of perpetual sunshine. If you think I am trying to make fun of people in the north I am not. The typical weather pattern in Victoria was for 4 days of Sun, 3 Days of rain. IN winter that was reversed with only Jan, Feb and March being “dry” months. Even so In summer, it rained so hard sometimes rivers and creeks would readily overflow breaking their banks. The valley grasses never browned off, the trees lichens rich in moisture. Now the Lichens have thinned down or gone, the valley grasses are as brown and dry as the top of hills, the trees, gum trees are shedding leaves and branches to stay alive. European trees need constant care or they will certainly die. You could call it climate shift if you want to. I just watched 50 kilometers of Forrest, woodlands and Temperate forest to the North West, some of the most beautiful places around Melbourne burn to ash in less than 3 hours.

As one fire fighter put it. “I was there on ash Wednesday 1983. I saw those fires but this, this was a furnace, nothing would have stopped this. Nothing!

I wonder how long before it takes out suburbs, not hundreds of people but thousands. I know It can happen. I wanted to go with my camera and take as many images as I could but I dare not leave this Suburban home. If that fire was aimed this way, I shudder to think. Even homes on grassy paddocks burned down. So what is a timber fence, a dying Oak or Poplar, a garden full of exotic weeds. Melbourne and Sydney are time bombs. Not because of what we made or how, but the weather and the Australian climate knows no rules. Urban / Suburban, it dies not matter.

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