{"id":654,"date":"2009-02-16T15:12:26","date_gmt":"2009-02-16T20:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/archives\/2009\/02\/bushfires-and-climate\/"},"modified":"2009-03-30T11:28:02","modified_gmt":"2009-03-30T16:28:02","slug":"bushfires-and-climate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/archives\/2009\/02\/bushfires-and-climate\/","title":{"rendered":"Bushfires and extreme heat in south-east Australia Ash Wednesday, Black Friday, 7ter Februar 2009<\/lang_de>Los incendios forestales y el calor extremo en el sureste de Australia<\/lang_sp>"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Guest commentary by David Karoly<\/a>, Professor of Meteorology at the University of Melbourne in Australia<\/small><\/p>\n

On Saturday 7 February 2009, Australia experienced its worst natural disaster in more than 100 years, when catastrophic bushfires killed more than 200 people and destroyed more than 1800 homes in Victoria, Australia. These fires occurred on a day of unprecedented high temperatures in south-east Australia, part of a heat wave that started 10 days earlier, and a record dry spell. <\/p>\n

This has been written from Melbourne, Australia, exactly one week after the fires, just enough time to pause and reflect on this tragedy and the extraordinary weather that led to it. First, I want to express my sincere sympathy to all who have lost family members or friends and all who have suffered through this disaster.<\/p>\n

There has been very high global media coverage of this natural disaster and, of course, speculation on the possible role of climate change in these fires. So, did climate change cause these fires? The simple answer is \u201cNo!\u201d Climate change did not start the fires. Unfortunately, it appears that one or more of the fires may have been lit by arsonists, others may have started by accident and some may have been started by fallen power lines, lightning or other natural causes.<\/p>\n

Maybe there is a different way to phrase that question: In what way, if any, is climate change likely to have affected these bush fires?<\/p>\n

Dieser Beitrag erscheint zeitgleich auf deutsch auf PrimaKlima<\/a>.<\/lang_de>
\nUna traducci\u00f3n en espa\u00f1ol est\u00e1 disponible aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/lang_sp>
\nUna traduzione in italiano \u00e8 disponibile qui<\/a><\/lang_it>
\n<\/p>\n

To answer that question, we need to look at the history of fires and fire weather over the last hundred years or so. Bushfires are a regular occurrence in south-east Australia, with previous disastrous fires on Ash Wednesday<\/a>, 16 February 1983, and Black Friday<\/a>, 13 January 1939, both of which led to significant loss of life and property. Fortunately, a recent report \u201cBushfire Weather in Southeast Australia: Recent Trends and Projected Climate Change Impacts\u201d<\/a>(ref. 1) in 2007 provides a comprehensive assessment on this topic. In addition, a Special Climate Statement<\/a>(ref 2) from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology describes the extraordinary heat wave and drought conditions at the time of the fires.<\/p>\n

Following the Black Friday fires, the MacArthur Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) was developed in the 1960s as an empirical indicator of weather conditions associated with high and extreme fire danger and the difficulty of fire suppression. The FFDI is the product of terms related to exponentials of maximum temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and dryness of fuel (measured using a drought factor). Each of these terms is related to environmental factors affecting the severity of bushfire conditions. The formula for FFDI is given in the report on Bushfire Weather in Southeast Australia. The FFDI scale is used for the rating of fire danger and the declaration of total fire ban days in Victoria. <\/p>\n

\r\nFire Danger Rating           FFDI range\r\nHigh                          12 to 25\r\nVery High                     25 to 50\r\nExtreme                         >50\r\n<\/pre>\n
The FFDI scale was developed so that the disastrous Black Friday fires in 1939 had an FFDI of 100.<\/p>\n
To understand the environmental conditions associated with the catastrophic bushfires on 7 February 2009, we need to consider each of the factors and the possible role of climate change in them.<\/p>\n
Maximum temperature:<\/strong> This is the easiest factor to consider.  Melbourne and much of Victoria had record high maximum temperatures on 7 February (2).  Melbourne set a new record maximum of 46.4\u00b0C, 0.8\u00b0C hotter than the previous all-time record on Black Friday 1939 and 3\u00b0C higher than the previous February record set on 8 February 1983 (the day of a dramatic dust storm in Melbourne), based on more than 100 years of observations.  But maybe the urban heat island in Melbourne has influenced these new records.  That may be true for Melbourne, but many other stations in Victoria set new all-time record maximum temperatures on 7 February, including the high-quality rural site of Laverton, near Melbourne, with a new record maximum temperature of 47.5\u00b0C, 2.5\u00b0C higher than its previous record in 1983.  The extreme heat wave on 7 February came after another record-setting heat wave 10 days earlier, with Melbourne experiencing three days in a row with maximum temperatures higher than 43\u00b0C during 28-30 January, unprecedented in 154 years of Melbourne observations. A remarkable image of the surface temperature anomalies associated with this heat wave is available from the NASA Earth Observatory<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Increases of mean temperature and mean maximum temperature in Australia have been attributed to anthropogenic climate change, as reported in the IPCC Fourth Assessment, with a best estimate of the anthropogenic contribution to mean maximum temperature increases of about 0.6\u00b0C from 1950 to 1999 (Karoly and Braganza, 2005<\/a>).  A recent analysis of observed and modelled extremes in Australia finds a trend to warming of temperature extremes and a significant increase in the duration of heat waves from 1957 to 1999 (Alexander and Arblaster, 2009<\/a>).  Hence, anthropogenic climate change is likely an important contributing factor in the unprecedented maximum temperatures on 7 February 2009.<\/p>\n
Relative humidity:<\/strong> Record low values of relative humidity were set in Melbourne and other sites in Victoria on 7 February, with values as low as 5% in the late afternoon.  While very long-term high quality records of humidity are not available for Australia, the very low humidity is likely associated with the unprecedented low rainfall since the start of the year in Melbourne and the protracted heat wave.   No specific studies have attributed reduced relative humidity in Australia to anthropogenic climate change, but it is consistent with increased temperatures and reduced rainfall, expected due to climate change in southern Australia.<\/p>\n
Wind speed:<\/strong> Extreme fire danger events in south-east Australia are associated with very strong northerly winds bringing hot dry air from central Australia.  The weather pattern  and northerly winds on 7 February were similar to those on Ash Wednesday and Black Friday, and the very high winds do not appear to be exceptional nor related to climate change.<\/p>\n
Drought factor:<\/strong> As mentioned above, Melbourne and much of Victoria had received record low rainfall for the start of the year.  Melbourne had 35 days with no measurable rain up to 7 February, the second longest period ever with no rain, and the period up to 8 February, with a total of only 2.2 mm was the driest start to the year for Melbourne in more than 150 years (2). This was preceded by 12 years of very much below average rainfall over much of south-east Australia, with record low 12-year rainfall over southern Victoria (2).  This contributed to extremely low fuel moisture (3-5%) on 7 February 2009.  While south-east Australia is expected to have reduced rainfall and more droughts due to anthropogenic climate change, it is difficult to quantify the relative contributions of natural variability and climate change to the low rainfall at the start of 2009.<\/p>\n
Although formal attribution studies quantifying the influence of climate change on the increased likelihood of extreme fire danger in south-east Australia have not yet been undertaken, it is very likely that there has been such an influence. Long-term increases in maximum temperature have been attributed to anthropogenic climate change. In addition, reduced rainfall and low relative humidity are expected in
\nsouthern Australia due to anthropogenic climate change. The FFDI for a number of sites in Victoria on 7 February reached unprecedented levels, ranging from 120 to 190, much higher than the fire weather conditions on Black Friday or Ash Wednesday, and well above the \u201ccatastrophic\u201d fire danger rating (1).<\/p>\n
Of course, the impacts of anthropogenic climate change on bushfires in southeast Australia or elsewhere in the world are not new or unexpected. In 2007, the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report WGII chapter \u201cAustralia and New Zealand<\/a>\u201d concluded<\/p>\n
\nAn increase in fire danger in Australia is likely to be associated with a reduced interval between fires, increased fire intensity, a decrease in fire extinguishments and faster fire spread. In south-east Australia, the frequency of very high and extreme fire danger days is likely to rise 4-25% by 2020 and 15-70% by 2050.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Similarly, observed and expected increases in forest fire activity have been linked to climate change in the western US, in Canada and in Spain (Westerling et al, 2006<\/a>; Gillett et al, 2004<\/a>; Pausas, 2004<\/a>). While it is difficult to separate the influences of climate variability, climate change, and changes in fire management strategies on the observed increases in fire activity, it is clear that climate change is increasing the likelihood of environmental conditions associated with extreme fire danger in south-east Australia and a number of other parts of the world.<\/p>\n
References and further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n
(1) Bushfire Weather in Southeast Australia: Recent Trends and Projected Climate Change Impacts<\/a>, C. Lucas et al, Consultancy Report prepared for the Climate Institute of Australia by the Bushfire CRC and CSIRO, 2007.<\/p>\n
(2) Special Climate Statement<\/a> from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology \u201cThe exceptional January-February 2009 heatwave in south-eastern Australia\u201d <\/p>\n
Karoly, D. J., and K. Braganza, 2005<\/a>: Attribution of recent temperature changes in the Australian region. J. Climate, 18, 457-464.<\/p>\n
Alexander, L.V., and J. M. Arblaster, 2009<\/a>: Assessing trends in observed and modelled climate extremes over Australia in relation to future projections. Int. J Climatol., available online.<\/p>\n
Hennessy, K., et al., 2007<\/a>: Australia and New Zealand. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, M.L. Parry, et al., Eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 507-540.<\/p>\n
Westerling, A. L., et al., 2006<\/a>: Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity. Science, 313, 940. <\/p>\n
Gillett, N. P., et al., 2004<\/a>: Detecting the effect of climate change on Canadian forest fires. Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L18211, doi:10.1029\/2004GL020876. <\/p>\n
Pausas, J. G., 2004<\/a>: Changes In Fire And Climate In The Eastern Iberian Peninsula (Mediterranean Basin). Climatic Change, 63, 337\u2013350. <\/p>\n\n<\/div> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guest commentary by David Karoly, Professor of Meteorology at the University of Melbourne in Australia On Saturday 7 February 2009, Australia experienced its worst natural disaster in more than 100 years, when catastrophic bushfires killed more than 200 people and destroyed more than 1800 homes in Victoria, Australia. These fires occurred on a day of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-climate-science","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}