The Yarrabin fire broke out in the Kybeyan Range on January 6, 2013, burning about 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Nimmatabel.
By January 15, firefighters had contained the blaze, but it had charred
more than 10,500 hectares (25,900 acres) of land near Wadbilliga
National Forest.
The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on the Earth Observing-1
(EO-1) satellite acquired this image of the affected area on January
15, 2013. Burned vegetation appears red in the false-color image;
unburned areas are dark green. Grassland and agricultural land is light
green and tan.
The fire was one of many
that burned across Australia when a record-breaking heat wave struck
the country in January. The heat wave, like all extreme weather events,
had its direct cause in a complex set of atmospheric conditions that
produce short-term weather. However, weather occurs within the broader context of the climate, and there’s a high level of agreement among scientists that global warming has made it more likely that heat waves of this magnitude will occur.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Adam Voiland. Instrument: EO-1 - ALI
