Australian bushfires

Evangelion said:
Absolutely not true. Fuel reduction and back burning was carried out extensively. Firebreaks were created wherever possible.

Unfortunately some of these fires are capable of leaping 500 metres, which means they can cross rivers, roads, fire breaks, and pretty much anything else.
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At the risk of seeming a bit paranoid.

I live in SW Surrey. Where I live is actually quite heavily wooded (Even in my own garden) the plot at the bottom of the garden is pretty much a low level forrest.

It now scares me!

(Seriously, last year was very dry. The problem is that the plot at the bottom of my garden (and four other houses) is four acres of land that hasn't been managed in any way for 40 years. It is FULL of dead, and dry, wood. If it ever got going it would send off a fire that would probably burn everything for many square miles. This could easily happen here but it would basically have sod all about global warming. It is just a dangerous situation that should never have been allowed to get this bad! (Me, I am moving and running aways. In three months time it is going to be somebody else's problem! :( )
 
Does anyone know how much of it is contained? In the United States California has a website where it shows all the current fires and the percentage of it contained. Like 65% contained for example.
 
Orionaut said:
At the risk of seeming a bit paranoid.

I live in SW Surrey. Where I live is actually quite heavily wooded (Even in my own garden) the plot at the bottom of the garden is pretty much a low level forrest.

It now scares me!

(Seriously, last year was very dry. The problem is that the plot at the bottom of my garden (and four other houses) is four acres of land that hasn't been managed in any way for 40 years. It is FULL of dead, and dry, wood. If it ever got going it would send off a fire that would probably burn everything for many square miles. This could easily happen here but it would basically have sod all about global warming. It is just a dangerous situation that should never have been allowed to get this bad! (Me, I am moving and running aways. In three months time it is going to be somebody else's problem! :( )
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Bulldoze the surrounding area, including properties, and consider a moat.
 
Desert Skies said:
Does anyone know how much of it is contained?
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I have no idea. All I know is that it's still pretty frantic down here.

Map of lightning activity in the past 24 hours:

Capture.png


(Source).

Much of that lightning is produced by local weather systems generated by the fires themselves.
 
Evangelion said:
I have no idea. All I know is that it's still pretty frantic down here.

Map of lightning activity in the past 24 hours:

Capture.png


(Source).

Much of that lightning is produced by local weather systems generated by the fires themselves.
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How exactly is dry lightening generated?

Is it fine, insulating, dust caught up in hot air dust devils generating static electricity?

Sort of like Volcanic lightning? (Which can be stupidly intense!)
 
Evangelion said:
I have no idea. All I know is that it's still pretty frantic down here.

Map of lightning activity in the past 24 hours:

Much of that lightning is produced by local weather systems generated by the fires themselves.
Click to expand...

I am not an expert in wild fires but I have once taken an online course that taught wild fire behavior. The thing is when a fire gets big enough it starts creating it's own weather in the form of a pyrocumulonimbus cloud. It can produce rain but the rain never makes it to the surface since it evaporates before hitting the ground. The lightning from the pyrocumulonimbus helps the fire by creating more fire; its quiet the cycle.

Fire fighters do controlled burns to create a barrier that the fire cannot pass. A moat would work but I would imagine it any flammable fuel over the other side must be far away enough else the fire could jump.
 
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Desert Skies said:
I am not an expert in wild fires but I have once taken an online course that taught wild fire behavior. The thing is when a fire gets big enough it starts creating it's own weather in the form of a pyrocumulonimbus cloud. It can produce rain but the rain never makes it to the surface since it evaporates before hitting the ground. The lightning from the pyrocumulonimbus helps the fire by creating more fire; its quiet the cycle.
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^^ That's it in a nutshell, good explanation.
 
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Yadda said:
Yes. Great, practical things. I like them too.
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Of course if you want to go really old school...


80HP and a Billion FtLbs of torque! :cool:

It absolutely will not stop until you are dead It gets to the end of the course!:p


Of course it is forgotten that these machines were frequently fuelled with wood grown locally or even on the farmers own land. Simple machines like this transformed agriculture because farmers no longer had to devote a huge proportion of their productive land to providing fodder for draught animals.

I often wonder why we ever gave up on steam (For trains anyway), sure, on paper, the thermal efficiency is poor, and the operation far more labour intensive, compared to diesels, but we didn't have to travel to the ends of the world and fight geopolitical wars in order to ensure a secure supply of fuel for them and when all the costs of that are taken into consideration (Both in terms of energy and cost) I imagine that the comparison is actually rather closer. (Fuel supply considerations were a major concern in the 60's as steam trains started to be replaced by diesels. It was by no means a clear cut choice!)

Anyway, I digress....

Back to the fires...

:p
 
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