14
BAMOS July 2021
Friends of Fire
Hamish Clarke
Greetings !
I ’ m Des , the dryness of fuel .
You know , leaves and sticks and grass and trees and stuff ?
They don ’ t burn so well when I ’ m not around .
Just sayin ’.
Me and Phil go hand in hand , obviously . Once you add Iggy and Wes …
things really start heating up .
The bushfire season of 2019-20 was extreme and extremely unusual *
Can I get something off my chest ? I played a big role in that fire season .
* NSW Bushfire Inquiry , 2020
Did you know scientists like to split my fuel-drying powers into two categories ? live fuels and – sorry Phil – Dead fuels .
In 20 years of satellite records , we ’ ve never seen a bigger fraction of a region ’ s forests burn than Australia ’ s temperate forests did in 2019-20 .
And we ’ ve never had a larger area of forest in such a dry state
Both live and dead fuels were incredibly dry before and during the fire season . Maybe it ’ s not such a big surprise : 2019 was Australia ’ s driest year on record . |
Dry fuels burn more easily . And dry landscapes have bigger fires . It was a real struggle finding moisture anywhere in 2019 . |
Fuel dryness is a big deal , especially in forests and woodlands .
You can expect to hear a lot more about this topic , particularly as our climate warms .
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If we ’ re going to live with fire , we ’ d better get to know it . the 4 friends of fire are a good place to start |