Australia's 1.2-million-acre megafire is out of control

Back in early November, David Bowman had a bad feeling about Australia's thriving wildfires.

The ingredients for bushfire hell had come together. The forests were exceptionally dry. There was no hint of meaningful rain. Winds howled through the country. And it was getting hotter. Eventually, Australia broke its record for its hottest day ever — two days in a row.

"I said 'this is unprecedented'," recalled Bowman, a professor of pyrogeography and fire science at the University of Tasmania. "The whole system was set up to burn."

It has.

Fires have burned over three million acres of bushland, including the 1.2-million-acre Gospers Mountain megafire northwest of Sydney, labeled "out of control" by the region's fire agency, the New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Service. That's nearly the size of Grand Canyon National Park, and larger than Rhode IslandThe Syndey Morning Herald called Gospers a "monster" fire, and notes it's now the largest forest fire to start from a single ignition point in Australian history (there have been larger grass fires). Read more...

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