The Fort McMurray Fire: 'Absolutely a Harbinger of Things to Come'

[Ghost Dog]

1. Tasmania

The 2016 Tasmanian bushfires are a large series of bushfires in Tasmania which started in January 2016 throughout the state, and have continued into February 2016, with considerable damage to fire sensitive areas in the Central Highlands, West Coast and South West regions.

Fire ecologists have stated that some of the dead trees killed by the bushfires were more than 1000 years old and part of a confined, Gondwana-era ecosystem unique to Tasmania that in some cases has never burned before. Pictures of burnt areas and vegetation taken by conservationists have prompted warnings that the alpine ecosystem could be completely lost within decades unless more was done to protect it, given the increased risk of fire due to climate change.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Tasmanian_bushfires

... The dry spring was followed by Tasmania’s warmest summer since records began in 1910, with temperatures 1.78℃ above the long-term average. Many regions, especially the west coast, stayed dry during the summer – a pattern consistent with climate projections. The dry spring and summer led to a reduction in available water, including a reduction of inflows into reservoirs...

... By the end of February, more than 300 fires had burned more than 120,000 hectares, including more than 1% of Tasmania’s World Heritage Area – alpine areas that had not burnt since the end of the last ice age some 8,000 years ago. Their fire-sensitive cushion plants and endemic pine forests are unlikely to recover, due to the loss of peat and soils...

http://theconversation.com/was-tasmanias-summer-of-fires-and-floods-a-glimpse-of-its-climate-future-58055