Buncrana Gorse Fire - 08 April 2013

In the early hours of this morning (Monday 8th April 2013, Buncrana Fire Brigade were battling to control a giant gorse fire on Fahan Hill in Buncrana, Donegal. Photographer Adam Rory Porter said the fire was approximately 1.5 kilometres away from his house in this picture.

Donegal County Fire and Rescue Service says it believes many of the gorse and forest fires it has attended in the past week may have been started deliberately.

Click on the image for a larger view

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Gorse fire, Ox Mountain, Sligo - 06 April 2013

Gorse fire, Ox Mountain, Coolaney, Sligo. Images Val Robus. To submit an image to TMT email us at editor@meteotimes.net or post an image to our Facebook page. 

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Minister issues Fire Warning

A fire in Kilmaley, Clare, today.

Simon Coveney T.D., Minister for Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine today reminded forest owners, forestry managers, farmers, turf cutters and the public that there will be an ongoing risk of land and forest fires in many parts of the country over the coming days.

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Hundreds of acres of forestry destroyed by fire in Clare

Locals look on as raging fires sweep across Mount Callan on Wednesday night

Hundreds of acres of forestry were destroyed but several homes were saved during the worst gorse fires seen in Co Clare for several years, Pat Flynn reports for TMT.

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Firefighters tackle large gorse and forest fire in County Clare

Firefighters tackle gorse and forestry fire at Coore East, Co Clare. Image Clare County Fire & Rescue Service Facebook

Dozens of firefighters from four different stations were last night (Wednesday) battling to save homes and forestry threatened by one of the largest gorse fires in Co Clare for several years,  Pat Flynn reports for The Meteo Times.

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Gorse Fire, Barna, Galway

Gorse fire at Barna, Co Galway tonight. A number of homes in the area have been evacuated as a precaution. Three other fires have been reported at Furbo, Spiddal and Oranmore. Image Clint Coen

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Large Bushfires Range in Victoria, Australia

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image showing large bush fires burning in southwestern Victoria on February 18, 2013. 

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In Review: How Widespread was the Australian Heatwave?

January 2013 brought record-setting heat to Australia; not just for days, but for weeks. Temperatures regularly eclipsed 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in multiple locations across the continent. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Australia set a new record for the highest temperature averaged across the entire nation: 40.33°C (104.59°F) on January 7. The national average reached 40.11°C (104.20°F) the following day. The overnight minimum temperature for January 7–8 also set new a record—32.36°C (90.25°F)—contributing to the hottest two-day period in Australia’s recorded history.

Each of the first eight days of 2013 were among the 20 hottest days on record. The scorching weather continued a trend of four consecutive months (September to December 2012) where temperatures were the highest on record. The persistent heat mirrors a similar pattern that developed in the continental United States in 2012.

The map above shows land surface temperature (LST) anomalies for Australia from January 1–8, 2013. LST anomalies are not absolute temperatures; instead, they show how much temperatures were above or below the average. The darkest reds show areas that were as much as 15°C (27°F) above the norm; blues show areas that were below normal; and grays depicts areas with incomplete data (often due to cloud cover). The map was built from data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, and the 2013 data is compared to the average for the same week as observed from 2005–2012.

Observed by satellites uniformly across the entire globe, land surface temperatures are a measure of the amount of infrared energy (thermal radiance) emitted by Earth’s surface as it is heated by daylight and cooled in the dark of night. LSTs are sometimes referred to as land “skin” temperatures, and indeed they are a reflection of how hot a surface would feel to the touch. (To learn more about LSTs and air temperatures, read: Where is the Hottest Place on Earth?)

Five scientists from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology wrote an analysis of the heatwave for The Conversation:

“Australia has always experienced heat waves, and they are a normal part of most summers. However, the current event affecting much of inland Australia has definitely not been typical. The most significant thing about the recent heat has been its coverage across the continent, and its persistence. It is very unusual to have such widespread extreme temperatures—and have them persist for so long. On those two metrics alone, spatial extent and duration, the last two weeks surpasses the only previous analogue in the historical record (since 1910)—a two-week country-wide hot spell during the summer of 1972-1973.”

During a January 2013 meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Hobart, Tasmania, IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri noted that the heatwave fit the patterns of global warming: “If you look at the trend then I think that's pretty unmistakeable,” Pachauri said, “and any proper analysis would tell you that we are heading in that direction.”

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using data from the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LPDAAC). Caption by Michael Carlowicz.

Instrument: Aqua - MODIS

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Burn Scar from the Yarrabin Fire in New South Wales

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. 

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WORLD FROM SPACE Wildfires in New South Wales

Temperatures cooled somewhat in New South Wales on January 9, 2013, a day after record-breaking temperatures seared Australia’s most populous state on back-to-back days. Despite the reprieve, bush fires continued to rage throughout New South Wales and many other parts of the continent. 

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WORLD FROM SPACE Wildfires in Tasmania

In January 2013, intense bushfires blazed in Tasmania, an island south of Australia. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image showing numbers fires burning across the island on January 7, 2013. Red outlines indicate hot spots where MODIS detected unusually warm surface temperatures associated with fires.

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Firefighters Contain Chips Blaze In California

The Chips fire was first reported in Plumas National Forest on July 29, 2012, burning about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Quincy, California. By September 5, it had charred more than 75,000 acres (300 square kilometers). Though parts of the fire were still smoldering on that date, fire officials considered the blaze 100 percent contained.  

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Fires Continue To Spread Across Northern California

Hot, dry, and gusty conditions continued to exacerbate wildfires throughout the western United States on August 24, 2012. In northern California, one of the areas most severely affected, several fires burned. Most blazed in remote areas, but the Ponderosa fire had destroyed several dozen homes and threatened hundred of others.

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Australian Wildfire Brought Under Control

On August 19, 2012, thick smoke streamed from a fire in Western Australia near Lake Gregory when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image. 

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Wildfire Breaks Out On Greek island Of Chios

In mid-August 2012, an intense wildfire broke out on the Greek island of Chios, sending a thick plume of smoke southward toward the island of Kriti (Crete).

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Lightning Sparks Massive California Wildfire

Sparked by lightning, the Ponderosa fire had burned 15,000 acres (6,100 hectares) in northern California by August 20, 2012. 

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WORLD FROM SPACE - U.S. Wildfires At Night

For more than a decade, scientists have used data from instruments on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites to map the locations of wildfires burning around the globe. Now researchers have another tool for observing fire. The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite (S-NPP) carries an instrument so sensitive to low light levels that it can detect wildfires in the middle of the night.

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Wildfire Smoke Plume Drifts Across The United States

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of the Idaho fires on Aug 14, 2012.

Intense wildfires in California and Idaho sent smoke eastward across the United States in mid-August 2012. Smoke affected air quality as far away as the Great Lakes Region, and some of the thickest smoke stretched from the Dakotas to Texas.

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Thick Smoke Shrouds Wyoming

Wildfires in California, Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada sent smoke over large stretches of the United States in mid-August 2012. Particularly thick smoke collected over Wyoming on August 14, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image. 

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Idaho Forests Ablaze

On August 16, 2012, numerous wildfires burned through coniferous forests in Idaho. Three of the largest were in central Idaho.

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