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Australia’s Bush Fire Smoke Will Travel Around the World, NASA Says

NTD Newsroom
By NTD Newsroom
January 17, 2020Australia
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Australia’s Bush Fire Smoke Will Travel Around the World, NASA Says
smoke rises from wildfires burning in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, on Jan. 2, 2020. (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning Gippsland via AP)

NASA has reported that Australia’s wildfires’ smoke will make a full circle around the globe affecting air quality and climate worldwide.

The agency warned that due to the heat and intense drought in Australia the past months, so-called pyrocumulonimbus events, or pyrCbs, or fire-induced thunderstorms, vast amounts of smoke and ashes had been shot up to the stratosphere at more than 10 miles above the earth’s surface.

Once the smoke reaches these heights, stratospheric winds may transport it at high speed from its original place across the pacific onto South America and beyond.

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A kangaroo jumps in a field amidst smoke from a bushfire in Snowy Valley on the outskirts of Cooma on Jan. 4, 2020. And massive smoke rises from wildfires burning in East Gippsland, Victoria. (Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images; Dale Appleton/DELWP via AP)

By January 8, NASA said, the smoke had already made a half-circle around the globe and had profoundly affected atmospheric and weather conditions in New Zealand and South America, turning glaciers dark and topping snowcapped mountains black.

Some scientists claim the current bushfires are triggered by intense drought, which in turn should be caused by worldwide climate-change. However, this issue is seriously contested over.

Thunderstorms Sweep Across Australia’s Bushfire-Ravaged East Coast

Thunderstorms and heavy rain swept across parts of Australia’s east coast on Thursday, bringing hope that some of the fierce bushfires razing the country will be extinguished or at least slowed.

Officials warned, however, that short, intense thunderstorms could lead to flash flooding, while lightning brought the risk of new fires being ignited.

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An aerial view as rain begins to fall on drought and fire-ravaged country near Tamworth ahead of predicted further wet weather across NSW and Victoria this week in Tamworth, Australia, on Jan. 15, 2020 (Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

Australia has been battling its worst bushfire season on record since September, with fires killing 29 people, and at least 1 billion animals, and destroying more than 2,500 homes while razing bushland across an area the size of Bulgaria.

There were still 85 fires burning across the state of New South Wales on Thursday, with 30 of them yet to be contained, while 19 fires were alight in Victoria, according to fire authorities.

The wet weather brought some respite from the smoke haze that has plagued Australia’s major cities for weeks and has been tracked by NASA circumnavigating the globe. Still, Canberra and Melbourne ranked among the top 30 most polluted major cities worldwide.

Reuters contributed to this report

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