In Australia, wildfires have been increasing in recent years, although it has a fire season, the ones of 2019 and 2020 are the worst in their history, this is due to multiple factors. Currently the country is transiting an extremely hot and dry spring and summer, a situation favored by the Indian Ocean Dipole, an intraseasonal oscillation that was very present in recent months.
The low rainfall, extremely high temperatures, in 2019 Australia twice set a new temperature record. On December 17 it reached an average temperature of 40.9oC, and the next day 41.9oC. That country has become hotter in recent decades due to climate change, and is expected to continue to increase, contributing to more frequent and more intense fires. Another of the main causes of fires in Australia are the wide expanses of eucalyptus a tree typical of this part of the world, this and other species of the same family, contain oils in their leaves that can make them more flammable. In addition, they have long ribbons of bark that come off at this time of year, a condition that generates additional fossil fuel for the soil to burn.
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