Terrifying map shows Australia is set for another summer of hell with much of the country facing an extra MONTH of deadly bushfires and extreme temperatures as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are scorched

13 November 2020

Published by https://www.dailymail.co.uk/

AUSTRALIA – Australia’s worst bushfire season where an area three times the size of Ireland burned will seem like a holiday bonfire compared to what is to come, scientists warn.

The nation will lose entire towns to bushfires for an extra month, swelter through even more blazing summers, and drown in torrential rain and flooding.

Such dire predictions are detailed on a terrifying map in The State of the Climate report, released on Friday by the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO,

Australia will also be battered by more severe storms, and heavy rainfall causing dangerous flash flooding will become more intense.

CSIRO’s Climate Science Centre research director, Dr Jaci Brown, said though 2019 was the hottest year on record, it wouldn’t be unusual in coming decades.

‘In fact, we think of this decade being hot, but this decade will be one of the coolest in the next hundred years,’ she said.

Australia’s climate has warmed on average by 1.44 degrees since 1910, and of the nine warmest years on record, seven were from 2013 to 2019.

The shift in temperature has also meant the frequency of extremely cold days and nights has declined across the country.

The report found the frequency of the most dangerous 10 per cent of fire weather days have increased in recent decades, especially in the south and east.

Many areas of the country will have weeks more dangerous fire weather days – up to 25 in the worst-affected regions.

BoM Climate Environmental Prediction Services manager, Dr Karl Braganza, said longer fire seasons with more days of extreme risk meant less opportunity to reduce fuel loads during cooler months.

Climate change has influenced bushfire patterns through its impact on temperature, rainfall, and humidity that affects fuel moisture content.

‘We don’t necessarily feel the 1.44 degrees increase in Australian average temperature, but we feel those heatwaves and we feel the fire weather,’ he said.

Over the short term the wet weather associated with the La Nina weather pattern is expected to persist through spring and summer, but Dr Braganza said there were still dry parts of the country in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria.

He said southern Australia is one of the most fire prone regions on the globe.

The report said this area will likely brace weather conditions that are ‘conducive to extreme bushfires that can generate thunderstorms within their smoke plumes’.

‘These fire-generated thunderstorms can lead to extremely dangerous fire conditions, as observed during the 2019–20 summer,’ it reads.

‘In some cases, the lightning strikes produced from the smoke plumes generate new fires.’

The latest deadly bushfire season burnt more than 18 million hectares, destroying 3,000-plus homes and killing 33 people.

Drawing on the latest climate observations and projections, the biennial report is designed to deliver up-to-date information to aid decision making.

Other key findings include declining rainfall in the southeast and southwest of the country and rising sea levels in line with global trends.

But observations show there has actually been an increase in the intensity of heavy rainfall events – which lead to flash flooding and the destruction of homes.

The report reads: ‘Short-duration extreme rainfall events are often associated with flash flooding, and so these changes in intensity bring increased risk to communities.

‘This is particularly so in urban environments where the large amount of impervious ground cover (e.g. concrete) leads to increased flooding during heavy downpours.’

Rising sea levels around Australia cause further concern due to the increased risk of damage to coastal infrastructure and communities.

The report states oceans around the country are being affected by climate change, with significant impacts on marine ecosystems.

Surface waters are acidifying, and the frequency, intensity and duration of marine heatwaves have increased.

‘These trends, which are projected to continue in the coming decades, are already posing a significant threat to the long-term health and resilience of the coral reef ecosystems around Australia’s coast,’ Dr Brown said.