Australian Bushfire
Hot summer, lightning, and wind have contributed to ignite bushfires in southeast Australia. Now, disastrous bushfires are raging in Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia. Three persons killed by fire related incidents and dozens of houses and thousands of hectares of bush (mixed vegetation of forest and grass lands) and farms have destroyed within past few days. Fire fighters are using water-bombing helicopters to contain large firers in Victoria. Today's satellite image shows one of the massive fires in Victoria. About 1/3 of dark vegetation patch is affected by fire, as seen on this Jan. 24th MODIS satellite image. Vegetation patch is about 75km long. By today, most of the fires have considerable controlled with the help of mild wind and high humidity. Weather forecasters expect thunderstorms to Victoria in next few days, which may have contrasting impact by rains to decrease but lightning to ignite fires.