Bushfires, searing temperatures and mass fish deaths: Experts predict a ‘perfect storm’ of conditions will lead to one of the nation’s worst summers ever
- Australia is bracing for a horror summer following on from a record warm winter
- Bush fire danger period started early on August 1 in NSW amid startling outlook
- Bureau of Meteorology predicts hotter than average temperatures across nation
- A disastrous season in state’s rivers is also forecast leading to mass fish deaths
Australia is bracing for a horror summer this year after experts warned of a perfect storm of conditions causing a spate of bush fires and mass fish deaths.
The latest seasonal bushfire outlook has forecast above average fire potential across Australia – including the entirety of the New South Wales coastline.
The ominous warning by the Bushfire and Natural Hazard Cooperative Research Centre comes amid the driest start to the year nationally since 1970.
Australia is bracing for a horror summer this year after experts warned of a perfect storm of conditions causing a spate of bush fires and mass fish deaths (pictured fires in New South Wales’ Hunter region in August 2018)
In the country’s southern half, the report reveals, the period from January to July has been the driest on record.
The Bureau of Meteorology, meanwhile, has said the current winter period will go down as one of the top ten warmest on record.
It comes as the BoM released their weather outlook for September to November – predicting nearly the whole of Australia would exceed average Spring temperatures.
The bush fire danger period in New South Wales has been brought forward this year to August 1, well before the traditional start date in October.
It comes as the BoM released their weather outlook for September to November – predicting nearly the whole of Australia would exceed average Spring temperatures
NSW agriculture minister Adam Marshall forecast on Wednesday, meanwhile, ‘nothing short of a potential fish Armageddon’ in the state’s rivers.
Low rainfall, low river flows and high temperatures caused hundreds of thousands of fish to die last summer in the Murray-Darling basin, and Mr Marshall has predicted more of the same in 2019.
‘I’m not going to mince words — the situation we are facing this summer is nothing short of a potential fish Armageddon,’ he said.
NSW agriculture minister Adam Marshall forecast on Wednesday, meanwhile, ‘nothing short of a potential fish Armageddon’ in the state’s rivers (pictured dead fish floating in the Darling River at Menindee in January)
‘I’m not going to mince words — the situation we are facing this summer is nothing short of a potential fish Armageddon,’ NSW agriculture minister Adam Marshall said
The latest seasonal bushfire outlook has forecast above average fire potential across Australia – including the entirety of the New South Wales coastline
‘We’re in the midst of the worst drought on record, with record low rainfall, record low inflows into our river systems and high temperatures predicted over the coming months.’
The agriculture department has now announced a $10million package to pump oxygen into New South Wales’ rivers – and move fish into a dedicated hatchery in the summer months.
‘We’re facing a perfect storm, which could result in wide-scale fish kill events this summer even more significant than those we saw in Menindee earlier this year.’