Wildfires
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Fire

2nd wildfire in 24 hours hits UK: Arthur's seat in Edinburgh ablaze

Ella Wills
Independent
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 18:42 UTC
arthurs seat fire
© Holyrood Park, Edinburg PAScene of a gorse fire below Salisbury Crags inHolyrood Park, Edinburg
PA
Firefighters are battling a large gorse fire on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.

Around 800 square metres of gorse is ablaze on the Salisbury Crags.

Two fire engines from Edinburgh went to the scene after the alarm was raised at around 6.30pm on Tuesday.

Comment: See: Major moorland fire in Yorkshire, UK - In February?

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Fire

Major moorland fire in Yorkshire, UK - In February?


ITV
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 23:15 UTC
Yorkshire moorland fire
A major moorland fire has broken out above Marsden in West Yorkshire.

Around forty fire fighters are at the moment tackling the blaze next to the Great Western Inn on Manchester Road.

Four appliances from West Yorkshire are there and one from Greater Manchester is tackling the fire from their side.

200 square metres of moorland are ablaze and the fire service say it's likely that they'll be there throughout the night. No cause is yet known.

Comment: Whatever the cause, a wildfire in February in Yorkshire is certainly unusual. It could be related to the record heat much of the UK has seen in recent days: UK: Hottest February day ever as temperatures soar to 20C/68F

It's also notable that the summer drought and heatwave of 2018 brought about an unprecedented number of wildfires to the UK: Wildfire the size of 50 football pitches breaks out in "tinder dry" New Forest, UK



And check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?

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Fire

Curfews imposed in Chile as 5 simultaneous wildfires spiral out-of-control


Strange Sounds
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 10:37 UTC
Chile wildfires
Chile wildfires tear through Valparaiso on Pacific coast in 2014
In central regions of Chile, a curfew has been imposed due to forest fires going out-of-control in urban areas. The Chilean has already killed 2 last week. Two days ago, 5 fires have started simulteneously and are now threatening buildings in Penco and San Pedro de la Paz. Residents had to flee the flames. Regional authorities suspect arson as the cause of the fire and have introduced a curfew from 11:00pm to 7:00am in 10 provincial communes.

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Fire

Major wildfire engulfs forest in Chernobyl's EXCLUSION ZONE


RT
Sun, 17 Feb 2019 19:39 UTC
Sign warns about high levels of radiation
© AFP / Genya SavilovA sign warns about high levels of radiation in a forest located in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
A major blaze has broken out in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone - the site of the worst nuclear disaster in human history. The fire hit a forest some 20 kilometers away from the ill-famed nuclear power station.

The blaze inside Chernobyl's 'dead zone' in northern Ukraine started on Sunday when dry grass caught fire, the Ukrainian emergency service said in a statement. The blaze then reached a forest near the abandoned village of Bychki located some 24km (15 miles) away from the damaged nuclear reactor.

Some 5 hectares (12 acres) of forest went up in flames. Three firefighting vehicles and 18 emergency crew members were dispatched to tackle the blaze, according to the emergency service's statement.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, an area heavily contaminated by the disaster, has repeatedly witnessed wildfires over recent years. A large fire broke out there in June 2018. Another blaze, which scorched 25 hectares (60 acres) of land, hit it in 2017.
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Fire

Floods, fire and drought: Australia bearing the brunt of rise in extreme weather

Adam Morton
Guardian
Sat, 09 Feb 2019 21:09 UTC
australia flood
© Dan Peled/EPAResidents wade through floodwaters in the suburb of Hermit Park in Townsville this week.
Amid record temperatures, severe flooding and devastation of wilderness, the political message from the government is business as usual

The people of Townsville know about heavy rain, but this was new. Over the past fortnight, the northern Queensland city's 180,000 residents have been hit by a monsoon strengthened by a low-pressure front that dragged moist air south from the equator to Australia's top end.

It dumped an unprecedented 1.4 metres of rain in less than two weeks - roughly double what falls on London in a year.

The ensuing chaos has wrecked homes and caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to property. Two men have drowned and videos posted to social media have shown crocodiles climbing trees and taking to elevated highways in search of shelter.

But amid the deluge, not everyone heeded the evacuation advice.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?

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Fire

New Zealand is battling its worst wildfire in more than 60 years

Casey Quackenbush
TIME
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 09:34 UTC
wildfire on New Zealand’s South Island
© ReutersA firefighter puts out a blaze during a week-long wildfire on New Zealand’s South Island.
A massive bushfire has churned through more than 5,600 acres on New Zealand's South Island in what is believed to be the country's worst forest fire since 1955, BBC reports.

A state of emergency was declared on Feb. 6, two days after the Pigeon Valley Fire began near the city of Nelson. As of Monday, the blaze was still scorching the island's arid countryside, but as firefighting conditions improved, around 3,000 evacuated residents were allowed to return home.

Local MP Nick Smith described the region as a "tinderbox" and said 70,000 residents in the fire's range remain "on edge."

Twenty-three helicopters and two planes have reportedly been deployed to combat the blaze in the nation's largest aerial firefight on record, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Fire chiefs have warned that the flames could continue until March.

The bushfire follows a heatwave that saw some areas of New Zealand sweating out 90°F days last month. The New Zealand Drought Index reports "extremely dry" conditions in the Nelson area, which has reportedly been parched since November 2018.

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Fire

Dozens of out-of-control fires tear through Tasmania, Australia


Cairns Post
Thu, 24 Jan 2019 13:20 UTC
The blaze at Miena has been bought fought by crews on the ground and in the air.
© Claude Road Fire BrigadeThe blaze at Miena has been bought fought by crews on the ground and in the air.
Fire crews in Tasmania are preparing for what is expected to be the most dangerous day for bushfires due to hot and windy weather.

Residents have been told to enact their bushfire survival plans with 29 out-of-control fires burning across the state.

The bushfires have already ripped through more than 66,000 hectares, creating a line of fire more than 800 kilometres long.

A total fire ban remains in place.

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Info

Earth's magnetic field may be headed for a cataclysm says latest French study

Chris Mahon
Outer Places
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 22:55 UTC
Earth's Magnetic Field
© NASA Goddard – CC BY 2.0
We've reported on Earth's magnetic field before, including studies claiming that the planet's poles may reverse at any time and studies saying that Earth is probably not headed for a polar reversal at all. At the heart of these studies is the undeniable, millennia-old weakening trend in the planet's magnetic field, which, depending on your point of view, is either a temporary phenomenon that will eventually reverse itself (as it has in the past), or the harbinger of a cataclysmic breakdown of the Earth's entire magnetic shield and a subsequent flip of the magnetic poles.

The most recent study from the EDIFICE project, a geophysical research initiative based in France, claims we're headed for a cataclysm. According to Dr. Nicolas Thouveny, one of the principal investigators for EDIFICE: "The geomagnetic field has been decaying for the last 3,000 years. If it continues to fall down at this rate, in less than one millennium we will be in a critical (period)."
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Fire

'Catastrophic' bushfires tear through Queensland, Australia - Evacuations ordered

Max Margan
Daily Mail Australia
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 23:07 UTC
queensland bushfires
Firefighters have been brought in from interstate to deal with the crisis, which is far from over with hot conditions expected to continue for days
Nearly 10,000 people have been told to flee immediately as more than 100 fast-moving blazes tear through Queensland amid the state's bushfire crisis.

Thousands of people were evacuated from communities in central Queensland after catastrophic fire conditions on Wednesday.

Early on Thursday, residents of two more communities - Campwin Beach and Sarina Beach south of Mackay - were woken by police and emergency text messages telling them they were in danger and to move to safety immediately.

About 140 bushfires were burning across an almost 2,000km stretch from Yungaburra, south of Cairns, to Mount French, west of the Gold Coast.


Comment: Right now Australia seems to be experiencing all four seasons, and their extremes, in one: Although summer in the northern hemisphere saw similar conditions with devastating drought and wildfires, and even epic flooding: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: California Wildfires, Climate Change, And The Impossible Brexit

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Fire

Video of tannerite explosion igniting Arizona Sawmill fire released by Forest Service

Anthony Victor Reyes
News 4 Tucson
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 06:15 UTC
AZ sawmill fire
More than 160 people were evacuated from different locations affected by the Sawmill Fire.
New video of the baby gender reveal party gone wrong on Arizona state land near the Santa Rita Mountains foothills has been released by the U.S. Forest Service.

Back in April, U.S. Border Patrol agent Dennis Dickey allegedly started the Sawmill Fire after he reportedly shot an explosive compound known as Tannerite. Dickey said the blaze, which burned nearly 47,000 state land for more than a week, was started at Dickey's baby's gender reveal party.

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