Australia is in the midst of one of the worst bushfire crises the world has seen. Since September, entire communities have been engulfed by relentless heat and fires. The flames are showing no signs of slowing down – which means only one thing… death tolls are rising.
The country as a whole has been working tirelessly, but they desperately need help.
But hope may be on the horizon after a huge “rain bomb” has been set to hit the drought-ridden country.
Keep scrolling to find out more…
Due to soaring temperatures and one of the worst droughts in years, the relentless fires have been burning since September. We’re currently in January.
Just let that sink in.
New South Wales is suffering immensely at the moment.
There have been fires reported in every state, but New South Wales is truly taking a beating by bush fires and is undoubtedly the hardest hit.
More than 5,900 buildings have been destroyed.
What does this mean? Well, it grants “extraordinary powers” to the NSWRFS commissioner, including the authority to allocate government resources and direct government agencies in taking action, according to CNN.
Including several volunteer firefighters.
Several of Australia’s native species have been affected including kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, possums, wombats, and echidnas.
Over one billion animals have died.
CBS News reports that it’s thought now over one billion mammals, birds, and reptiles have died since September.
Firefighters all over the country have been tirelessly battling the formidable blazes and are struggling to contain them, and the fire services are truly stretched to their limits.
And it was Canada that was the first to respond and take action.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, based in Winnipeg, answered the call for help after realizing the bush fire situation is expected to continue for many more weeks and they even gave up their Christmases to help fight the raging fires.
Including the U.S. and New Zealand, who have sent in more firefighters to try and help tackles the blazes.
Ordinary people with regular professions have been volunteering to help tackle the flames and they have been working for free.
Sadly, Australia has only just entered summer, meaning temperatures could remain high for some weeks.
In fact, temperatures usually reach their highest during January and February, so there may be no end in sight for months.
And the volunteers have shown incredible bravery to leave behind their homes and tackle the fires head-on.
Human effort is simply not enough to extinguish the raging fires.
But the drought seems to be never-ending at this point.
And a recent weather forecast for Australia has given the entire country hope.
The heavier downpours are due on Thursday when thunderstorms and showers are forecast for most of NSW and up to twenty-five-millimeters is expected to fall on parts of the south coast.
The expected rain will be a true blessing to the country…
Sydney is expected to receive its most significant downpour in several months, with forecasts of 2-8 millimeters on Thursday and 5-10 millimeters on Friday.
But with every weather forecast comes a weather warning…
It has been warned that the predicted heavy down-pours could cause landslides, which could result in an equal amount of devastation.
BOM meteorologist Gabrielle Woodhouse said to the Daily Mail, “We are looking at a couple of days in a row of some showers and thunderstorms, some of which may produce significant accumulation over those couple of days.”
Australia is incredibly vulnerable at the moment…
“It will be quite welcome but there are some extra dangers and risks associated with it as the landscape is quite vulnerable with the fire damage… We’ve lost a lot of vegetations and there is the risk of landslips,” she went on to say.
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