Last month, there were uncontrolled fires burning simultaneously in Tasmania and California. October 2019: Australia's annual bushfire season officially begins. Rosie Perper/Business Insider Australia is being ravaged by the worst wildfires seen in decades, with large swaths of the country devastated since the fire season began in July. A Gloucester fire crew member fights flames from a bushfire in New South Wales on November 12, … 5.

We need truly novel, and creative, financial and social incentives to help individuals and communities undertake the necessary work. Parts of eastern Australia have had record low rainfall in 2019, contributing to an unusually ferocious early bushfire season. 2020-01-08T22:35:00Z Source: NASA. Jonathan Barrett/Reuters They're called "Black Swan" events.Concerningly, we are experiencing increasingly unprecedented extreme fire weather conditions associated with prolonged drought, desiccating high temperatures and strong winds.

The wildfires are among the worst to hit Australia since the so-called Black Saturday fires in 2009 which killed 173 people, according to news.com.au. The prolonged drought causes embers from fires to spread, leading to more intense fires in the 2019 season. Fires in NSW partly caused by delayed monsoons in India, experts say 'It's well and truly gone': Crushed Queenslanders return to wreckage of their homes Queensland famer's 'devastation' at … AP Photo/Rick Rycroft ROB GRIFFITH/AFP/Getty Images Another danger signal is the increased occurrence of "firestorms" — when smoke plumes create their own weather systems, such as strong erratic winds, lightning, black hail, and in extreme cases, even tornados.Finally, fire seasons have become longer. Some communities found themselves unable to evacuate … Smoke from the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires is seen from space drifting across the Pacific Ocean.

And we need to accept this is a long-range program, not a quick fix.There are new "outside the box" options to reduce fire risk to communities that need trialling.