In Victoria Melbourne, on the 7th of February, 2009 the weather conditions were some of the worst ever recorded. Wind speeds reached above 100km per hour and temperatures reached 46 degrees Celsius, thus causing the biggest bushfire in Australia, known as, the Black Saturday Bushfires.
Two months leading to the black Saturday bushfires, intense heat waves struck Victoria, causing minimal rainfall, resulting in the worst drought ever recorded in Australia. Power lines, Lighting, machinery and Arsonist are confirmed causes of the Black Saturday Bushfires. The drought, the hot temperatures, strong winds and the other factors are said to be the cause of the black Saturday bushfires
The Black Saturday Bushfires began in Kilmore East, when a fallen
Fires were a very common obstacle at the time, but nothing was even close to the fire of 1871. On October 8th, firefighters received a call from the neighbor of Catherine O’Leary. Neighbors reported seeing a number of flames coming from the cow barn. Firemen instantly spotted the fire, but miscalculated how big it really was. This event was historically known as the Chicago Fire of 1871 (“People 7 Events”).
Sheetz 1 Sarah Sheetz Ms. Rosenberger English 4 October 17, 2016 Faulkner’s Self Help Book In “Barn Burning,” Faulkner illustrates a boy’s coming to age story, including his struggle in choosing whether to stand by in the midst of his father’s destructive cycle of spiteful burning or stand up for his own belief in civic duty. While most readers do not relate to having a father that habitually burns others’ belongings in a strange power scheme, readers relate to the struggle between blood ties and their own values. Taking the theme even broader, readers relate to any struggle with making a decision. Through imagery, reoccurring motifs, and diction, Faulkner creates an intense pressure which enhances readers understanding of Sarty, his struggle,
Wildfires started as an annual and seasonal occurrence in the south western region of California since the early 1930’s in part because of the hot dry summers and the hot dry turbulent Santa Ana winds that blow in from the desert during the fall months. Now it has become a yearlong event (Mckay, 2010). These conditions greatly contribute to the “fire season” throughout this area. This set of circumstances in conjunction with downed power lines and humans that ignited fires took place in October of 2007. This led to a series of fires that burned more than 500,000 acres, destroyed 1,500 homes, killed 9, injured 85, and forced the successful evacuation of around 500,000 people out of harm’s way.
Before the fire broke out on Sunday night, October 8, 1871 there had been a large drought causing everything to be dry and extremely flammable. Many fires had been breaking out in Chicago. Records show that in 1870 the fire fighters went to nearly 600 fires. On Saturday night there had been a large fire that destroyed about four blocks and lasted for 16 hours. Another reason why everything in Chicago was so flammable was because almost the entire city was made out of wood. It was a lot worse in the middle class and poor sections of the town (19). Just about every house was made out of wood. Even buildings that claimed to be fire proof had wood roofs covered with tar. The richer part of town had stone and brick homes, but wooden interiors, wooden stables, and wooden storage buildings (Cromie, 81). Chicago was built on marshland and every time it rained the city flooded, so to help this problem the roads were made out of wood and elevated above the waterline. The day the fire started there were over 55 miles of pine-block street and 600 miles of wooden sidewalks. “Chicago in 1871 was a city ready to burn,” according to Jim Murphy, author of The Great Fire (Murphy, 18).
Humans have interacted with our planet and its glorious sights and resources in both negative and positive ways; some ways have a negative effect on our land but a positive effect on our economic progression and visa versa. Unfortunately the Cuyahoga River has been made famous because of its complications that have been caused, which has created not only economical problems but environmental problems all throughout its troubled history and is still being fixed to this day.
To begin with, during the year of 1870 and 1871 Chicago was facing extreme drought. During that time period the city of Chicago was built mostly from wood, making everything extremely flammable. Richard Bales author of “The Great Chicago Fire” states in an online article, “October 8, 1871, just after nine o'clock, a fire broke out in the barn behind the home of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary at 13 DeKoven Street. How the fire started is still unknown today, but an O'Leary cow often gets the credit.” Although we are not certain what and how the fire started, we know that it quickly spread. Legends say that the O’Leary’s cow knocked over one of the fire lamps therefore starting this massive fire. You might be asking yourself, how is it possible for a small fire to spread so quickly? “Hot air rose from the flames and mixed with the cool air above it, creating convection whirls. Witnesses called them "fire devils." A fire devil could pick up a burning piece of wood and send it flying. New fires started where the flaming objects landed. (McHugh)” Firefighters were exhausted from fighting a large fire the night before; and were sent to the wrong neighborhood at first. After finally arrivin...
fires in the first week of October, on Saturday night, October 7, a blaze broke
There are many causes of drought. The first element is about the water cycle. The moving clouds and moisture over the atmosphere cannot make a place receive the normal amount of rainfall during a period of time. ( Lincoln, 2014). It means there is not have enough moisture to create precipitation. If residents who live near a river, most of their water comes from this river. And their drought might because of the less precipitation at upstream. (ibid). As a result of the drought there will be a shortage of water in the region. The most important climatic phenomenon that causes drought is Southern Oscillation. “Southern Oscillation is a primary air pressure change which is a seesawing of atmospheric pressure between an area just to the north of Australia and the central Pacific Ocean.” (Study Guide 23). It is also linked to El Nino and La Nina. “El Nino is a complex interaction between air and sea in tropical Pacific. “(Robert, 2013). El Nino means little boy in Spanish and also means unusually high atmospheric pressure and sinking air through Northern Australian w...
This means that there weren 't enough nutrients in the grass, which tracks back to having no rain. The rain as said in the film, carries nutrients for the grass and plants to grow healthy. However, if there is no rain, there are no nutrients for the grass, if we don 't have lush green grass, and when the dry grass rubs against one another, it catches on fire. Droughts have a very big impact, it can destroy ecosystems, and also threaten drinking water. Deforestation has a big impact on losing ground
The north-eastern Australian state Queensland was hit by a series of floods in December 2010 and early January 2011. Many areas suffered intense flooding.
Australia has a long history of sufferance form many deadly natural hazards. And cyclone are one of the most deadliest and destructive natural disasters that Australia has encountered in past. From its first recorded major cyclone "Mahina" to the latest cyclone "Marcia", all have been very catastrophic resulting in loss of human lifes and resources. One of the most deadliest cyclone that Australia has encountered is Cyclone Mahina.
Fire at any level can be devastating, yet the effects that wildfires have on every worldwide country really has left its mark on the land. As written by world renowned wild fire spokesperson Smokey the Bear, “Every year, wildfires sweeps through parts of the United States setting wilderness and homes ablaze. On average these raging infernos destroy about four to five million acres of land a year. But in 2012, wildfire burned more than 9.3 million acres, an area about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined” (U.S. Wildfires). Destroying homes, crops, towns and of course forests. Yet the effects of these fires can be seen from a negative perspective as well as some positive. Plus there are natural causes as well as manmade that makes these destructive fires erupt and become almost unstoppable in seconds.
the "Bhola Cyclone" killed at least 300,000 people after it sent a 20 to 30 feet high storm
Each part of Australia has its own unique combination of weather systems that produces severe bushfire conditions, but in all cases these conditions result from hot, dry winds blowing from Australia's central arid region.
The Forest fire is occurring very frequently nowadays, reasons for it are a heavy increase in global warming and an increase in temperature.