Australia’s dreaded summer of wildfires soaked by wet weather

CANBERRA – Australians bracing themselves for a return of scorching heat and wildfires are instead battling with a prolonged deluge of rain across the country’s east that has inundated homes and damaged crops from sugar to wheat.

Vast areas of the country’s populous eastern states have been lashed by severe storms and flooding for several months, even after the onset of El Nino. The weather pattern typically brings hotter and drier conditions to Australia and prompts residents and the authorities to prepare for devastating wildfires.

However, the start of the Australian summer has been wet for many, in part due to another weather pattern – the Southern Annular Mode – which increases the chance of above-average rainfall. Climate change is also playing its part.

“Climate change is distorting weather towards greater extremes, especially in rainfall and drought,” said Associate Professor David King, director of the Centre for Disaster Studies at James Cook University, Australia. He added that the changing climate has made it increasingly difficult to produce accurate weather forecasts.

Prof King’s comment on weather forecasting echoes recent remarks from Australia’s Minister for Emergency Management and Agriculture Murray Watt, who was forced to defend the nation’s meteorology department after questions grew over the summer deluge. Mr Watt had warned in October that the nation was facing the “most serious” wildfire season since 2019 to 2020.

Australia is the world’s driest inhabited continent, and wildfires over summer can have a significant impact. The 2019 to 2020 event torched an area about the size of the United Kingdom and killed an estimated one billion native animals. Even after blazes are extinguished, the health implications can linger for longer.

The recent wet weather has swamped roads, stranded cows, seen rivers swell past decades-old records, and will result in a damage bill that could soar into the billions. In December 2023, the Insurance Council of Australia declared the storms over the Christmas period a significant event for Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria states, with thousands of claims received.

A tropical cyclone that crossed the coast in Queensland in December has damaged sugar crops, and the Bureau of Meteorology says another could develop next week. The severe storms are typical for this time of year.

For the nation’s farmers, the impact has been mixed. Apart from sugar, fruit orchards in Victoria have been damaged and flooding has delayed some of the harvest of wheat and barley. However, the deluge has allowed cotton growers to plant more, and this will likely improve soil moisture for the next grains crop.

“I think most of the farmers will say they would rather take the rain than dry conditions,” said Mr Stefan Vogel, the general manager of RaboResearch Australia & New Zealand. Bloomberg