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Wildfires

Wildfires – Colorado, USA

A wind-whipped wildfire west of Colorado Springs, burning in Park County and Teller County south of Florissant, had spread across more than 1,500 acres in rough terrain Friday afternoon, forcing evacuations of 100 homes and putting others on notice.

Wildfires – Thailand

Thai authorities on Thursday ordered urgent action to stop the spread of a fire that overnight engulfed forests on two mountains in a province northeast of the capital Bangkok. Firefighting vehicles had been deployed to extinguish the blaze, which broke out on Wednesday night in Nakhon Nayok province, 114 kilometres (70 miles) northeast of Bangkok.

Large parts of the north Thailand have been enveloped in a thick layer of toxic smog for days, leading to many inhabitants struggling with health problems. The smoke is due to slash-and-burn agriculture. In the week between March 19 and 26, more than 3,400 people visited hospitals in Chiang Rai alone to be treated for respiratory problems.

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Wildfires

Wildfires – Australia

Water bombing has being used for the first time in a decade in Central Australia to fight a fire that has been burning in the West MacDonnell Ranges since early March. The blaze has already burnt 100,000 hectares in the region. The AS350 B3 helicopter, capable of lifting 1 000 litres, was flown in from Katherine on Wednesday.

At least one home has been destroyed and several other dwellings impacted by a bushfire that tore through an Alice Springs rural area Friday afternoon. More than a dozen vehicles and a number of other structures were burnt out by the blaze which has since been brought under control and the alert level downgraded.

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Wildfires

Wildfires – North Carolina, USA

A North Carolina fire has spread across several thousand acres and had reached about 34 percent containment by late Sunday afternoon. The Last Resort Fire is burning on both private and federal lands in rural Tyrrell County. After firing operations on Saturday, the fire was estimated at 5,800 acres.

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Wildfires

Wildfires – Spain

Spain’s first major wildfire of the year continued to spread as it raged in the eastern Valencia region on Friday where it forced 1,500 residents to abandon their homes and destroyed more than 7,400 acres of forest. More than 500 firefighters supported by 18 planes and helicopters worked throughout the night and on Friday to tackle the blaze near the village of Villanueva de Viver.

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Wildfires

Wildfires – Spain

A forest fire raged in eastern Spain on Thursday, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate from nearby villages and sending huge plumes of smoke into the air. Firefighters were alerted about the blaze near Villanueva de Viver in the region of Valencia just before 1 p.m. (1200 GMT). Ten airplanes were fighting to put out the blaze, which had forced the evacuation of the villages of three villages. More than 1,000 people were forced to leave their homes.

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Wildfires

Wildfires – Argentina

Officials scrambled to tame a wildfire raging in a northeastern Corrientes province of Argentina that has consumed around 7,413 acres. Images showed huge smoke clouds billowing from the wildfire and traffic jams caused by the disaster as large patches of wilderness burned uncontrollably. Firefighters, police and two water-bombing planes have been working since Sunday to douse the fire which is the largest wildfire reported in 2023.

Wildfires – Australia

The Alpha Road Tambaroora bushfire which was sparked by lightning more than a week ago has burnt through more than 18,000 hectares. At least six homes have been destroyed. Almost 200 sheep have been euthanased by vets and hundreds more did not survive the fire.

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Wildfires

Wildfires – India

Forest fires in Goa have now been burning for seven days. There are 11 active fires at the moment, and 512 people are working to put them out. New fires have cropped up at Tambdi Surla, near the Satre bridge and Bondla of which the one at Piliem, Bondla is a major fire.

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Wildfires

Australian Wildfires Shredded the Ozone Layer

Massive wildfires that raged across southeast Australia in 2019–20 unleashed chemicals that chewed through the ozone layer, expanding and prolonging the ozone hole. A study, published today in Nature, describes how smoke combined with chlorine-containing molecules in the stratosphere — remnants of chemicals that are now banned — to cause the destruction of the ozone layer.

The Australian fires produced the largest smoke plume on record, releasing roughly one million tonnes of smoke to heights of up to 30 kilometres. That’s well into the stratosphere, the portion of the atmosphere that contains the ozone layer, which protects Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays. In the months after the wildfires, the hole in the ozone layer, which appears annually over Antarctica, was larger and lasted longer than in previous years.

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Wildfires

Wildfires – Australia

Firefighters in Australia on Tuesday were battling over 30 fires, of which a dozen are burning uncontrollably, in several parts of the east of the country, which is also experiencing hot, dry and windy conditions. Most of the fires are burning in New South Wales, Australia’s most populated region.

One of the fires causing the most concern is that of Tambaroora, located more than 190 kilometers (118 miles) west of Sydney. Authorities fear that this fire, which has spread over an area of more than 21 square kilometers (8 square miles), threatens some 50 neighboring properties if it advances amid rising temperatures and windy conditions. The fires come amid a heat wave, which raised temperatures in Sydney to 40 degrees Celsius, the highest in two years.

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Wildfires

Wildfires – Australia

The NSW Rural Fire Service says 38 fires are burning across the state including one that is threatening lives and homes in the central west. The blaze broke out yesterday afternoon at Tambaroora, near Hill End and about 80 kilometres north of Bathurst, and has since burned more than 635 hectares from just 169ha this morning. Flames were burning up to 10 metres in height. Properties at risk belong to a mix of absentee landholders and permanent residents.

Wildfires – Florida, USA

A dry start to 2023 in the Sunshine State has kept fire crews busy as conditions become more conducive for wildfires throughout the Peninsula. As of early March, the Florida Forest Service reported monitoring some 80 fires that have burned nearly 3,500 acres.

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Wildfires

Wildfires – Boreal Forests

Wildfires in the boreal forests that ring the globe’s far northern latitudes are emitting rapidly increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, according to an international study using new satellite technology.

Burning boreal forests across Eurasia and North America in 2021 released a record 1.76bn tonnes of CO₂ — representing 23 per cent of the world’s entire CO₂ emissions from fire.

While tropical forest fires had attracted much attention, as a result of deforestation, boreal forests were relatively overlooked. This was despite them being one of the most extensive and important biomes on Earth and being at threat from warming that is occurring much faster in the Arctic region than the rest of the planet.

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Wildfires – Texas, USA

Several crews are working a fire in Fort Davis Monday. As of 6 p.m. Monday, the fire is at 2,800 acres and is at 10% containment. There was no immediate threat to lives or property.

Wildfires – Costa Rica

The National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) reported an increase in wildfires in the country during February. 4 Savannah and 13 forest fires were reported. Although the total area burned is not large, the fires remain a concern for conservation authorities who have asked the population not to light any fires.

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Wildfires

Towering Wildfire Clouds Impact the Stratosphere

Vast clouds of wildfire smoke towering into the sky have become all too familiar from recent active fire years across the western United States and Australia. Now, a team of atmospheric scientists led by NOAA has demonstrated these big vertical plumes of wildfire smoke have a major long term impact on the stratosphere – and climate.

Fire-triggered thunderstorms, called pyrocumulonimbus or pyroCbs, are generated when the intense heat of a wildfire triggers a huge thunderstorm that carries smoke into the stratosphere, five to seven miles above the surface. Measurements show that pyroCb events dominate contributions of black carbon and organic carbon to the lower stratosphere, the net effect of which cools the planet. Scientists believe the impact of pyroCb events, which are becoming more frequent, is significant.

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Wildfires

Wildfires – Chile

According to National Institute of Agricultural Development, out of over 17 000 dead animals, 13,554 are poultry birds, 1,783 cattle, 560 goats, 407 sheep and 244 pigs, among other species.

The report did not include wildlife affected by the forest fires in early February, mainly in Ñuble, Biobío and La Araucanía regions, where over 452,000 hectares were ravaged. The Chilean government is presently coordinating some actions to support farmers and provide subsidies to companies (with up to 50 workers) that have been affected by the disaster.

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Wildfires

Wildfires – Australia

A fire burning out of control north of Melbourne has threatened properties, prompting authorities to issue an emergency warning for residents at Flowerdale and Yea. More than 41 fire trucks and six aircraft are fighting the grassfire, which is burning at Spring Valley Road in Flowerdale and travelling in a northern direction. Residents have been urged to take shelter indoors immediately as it is now too late to leave.