2019–20 Australian bushfire season (black summer)

The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season (black summer) was a series of uncontrollable fires that erupted across Australia in mid-2019 and lasted into the early months of 2020. The situation began in June 2019 before major fires began sweeping primarily across the southeast region of the country between December and January. By March, the fires had destroyed more than 46 million acres of land as well as thousands of homes and buildings. Australian wildlife was hit especially hard, with approximately one billion animals being killed by the fires. Some endangered species were believed to have become extinct because of the fires. More than thirty people were killed in the bushfires, which emitted more than 300 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The period of the bushfires came to be known as “Black Summer,” and the economic impact of the damage exceeded $4 billion, with the fires severely affecting the Australian tourism industry. The fires were either all extinguished or contained by the end of March 2020. Debate ensued throughout the crisis regarding the underlying cause of the fires’ strength and size.

Background

Bushfires are a consistent occurrence within the Australian landscape. In fact, fires are often important for the growth of vegetation and creation of biodiversity. The chance of bushfires developing depends on the region, with a number of environmental factors either increasing or decreasing this risk. Drier regions such as Australia’s central grasslands and northern tropical savannahs experience an enormous amount of vegetation growth when excess rain pours over the region. This vegetation eventually dies at the end of the rainy season as the area dries out, making the location extremely fire-prone in high temperatures. Wetter regions are prone to fires during periods of drought. When this occurs, the area is at risk of large-scale brushfires due to the large amount of forest vegetation that has dried out. Extremely high temperatures are known to instigate rapid bushfires, and the 2019–2020 summer season in Australia repeatedly exhibited higher-than-average temperatures for many regions.

Bushfire season in Australia began early in 2019. The 2019 Northern Australia Seasonal Bushfire Outlook warned of higher-than-average temperatures and low soil moisture, increasing the risk of bushfires. Fire and emergency services across the continent began warning people about fires already occurring in some places as early as June 2019. The southern half of Australia was experiencing a prolonged drought over the last three years before the bushfires erupted. Its dry period between January and August was the driest on record. In Queensland, where the bushfire season usually begins in August, authorities noted that erratic fires had already cropped up in areas such as Warwick and Stanthorpe by June. Above-normal fire potential was expected in forested areas on the south coast of Rockhampton, woodland and grass fields along the New South Wales border, and inland areas in the south. Officials also noted that firefighters had been dealing with early bushfires in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. By the beginning of July, more than eleven thousand bush and grass fires had spread across New South Wales.

The fires increased in intensity over the next few months, particularly in the southeastern states of Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, and by September the fires had reached catastrophic danger ratings. The country as a whole reported its highest ever spring fire weather danger as measured by the Forest Fire Danger Index, with many areas reaching record high values.

Overview

Beginning in September 2019, bushfires began to rise to dangerous levels throughout the state of New South Wales. More than one hundred fires were burning across the state. The Greater Sydney area declared a catastrophic fire danger and a total fire ban was instituted in several parts of New South Wales. A state of emergency was declared in December. Parts of Victoria also saw large areas of forest swallowed by fires. These fires raged through Victoria’s forests for weeks before emerging into populated territory in December, leading to the loss of both homes and lives. The fires burned out of control and threatened and isolated many towns. The region of East Gippsland declared a state of disaster. Intense fires also impacted parts of South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, with southeastern Queensland, southwestern Western Australia, and some parts of Tasmania only experiencing moderate to mild bushfires.

By mid-January 2020, more than 40 million acres of land had been burnt across the entirety of Australia, which had devastating implications for . Conservative estimates tallied close to 500 million animal lives had been lost, with later estimates broadening the number to one billion. Experts worried that entire species of animals had become extinct as a result of the bushfires. Thousands of homes and other buildings had been destroyed by the fires, and reports found that at least thirty people had died as a result of the disaster. New South Wales and Victoria were hit especially hard by the fires, reporting the highest human fatalities, with New South Wales experiencing the longest continuously burning bushfire complex in Australia’s history. Flames were reported to be more than 200 feet high in New South Wales, and the fires burnt more than nine million acres in the state.

By February, the bushfires began to gradually dissipate with the help of cooler weather and precipitation. Southeast Australia experienced torrential rains in early February that led to the extinguishing of one-third of the ongoing fires. Australia’s fire authorities slowly began to contain the fires, and many were extinguished by March. The season was officially declared to have ended on March 31, with almost all fires having been extinguished and the few remaining under containment. In total, more than 3,500 homes were destroyed and 46 million acres of land had been burnt. Smoke from the fires traveled more than 7,000 miles from Australia reaching parts of South America. Experts blamed years of drought, high winds, and record-breaking high temperatures for the scale and intensity of the fires. Some also pointed to climate change as a likely underlying cause.

Bibliography

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