Fires are raging around the world as climate change continues to impact, and average temperatures continue to climb, and while we may be enjoying what feels like a rare bit of sunshine in the Northern Rivers, with a strong to super El Niño coming our way, now is the time to prepare for the fire season.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), ‘El Niño often brings drier conditions to central and eastern Australia in winter and spring’. Rainfall is likely to be below average while temperatures are likely to be above average in most areas.
The ABC reports that ‘El Niño is strengthening across the Pacific Ocean at an alarming rate and could annihilate all records in the modern era. The rapid warming of our largest ocean is supplying additional heat into the Earth’s atmosphere, contributing to a summer of extreme heatwaves and fires across Europe and North America.
‘But with El Niño still months away from peaking, its impact on global weather will intensify through the back half of 2026, including in Australia, raising the prospect of our hottest spring on record and a heightened risk of drought and fires.’
Scientists have been raising the alarm on the impacts of climate change for years, and now we are seeing the direct impacts across the globe with www.worldweatherattribution.org stating that ‘wildfires are 20 times more likely to happen in Spain because of human-caused climate change’.
So it is time to take stock: clean your gutters, look at clearing debris and potential fire fuel from around your house and property, move wood piles and outside furniture away from direct contact with your house, update your bushfire survival plan, make sure you have tanks for water and a fire water tank if you are in a designated bushfire-prone area, and check your hoses. You can also contact your local Rural Fire Service (RFS) for more information on how to prepare for the upcoming fire season. Start your preparation early, as it is easy to underestimate how much work it takes to get ready for the fire season.
During the 2019 Black Summer fires, which were preceded by a drought, we saw intense public meetings as people grappled with the fire risks, people moving out of high fire risk areas as the heat and risk of fire continued to climb.
Following that fire season, many people decided to get informed and join their local RFS brigades so that they could understand the impacts of fires, what to do in a fire situation, how to respond, and to fight fires.
If you want to learn more about fires and floods and their impacts, you can look at becoming a volunteer of your local RFS (www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/volunteer) and State Emergency Services (SES) (www.ses.nsw.gov.au/volunteer) organisations. They are the two key volunteer organisations that provide support during emergencies.
Aslan Shand, editor
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