Bushfires: Hazardous smoke reaches South America

By Burak Bir

ANKARA (AA) - Australian catastrophic bushfires' smoke, causing hazardous air quality, has reached South American countries, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

"The fires have led to hazardous air quality in major cities throughout Australia, impacted New Zealand and sent smoke drifting thousands of kilometers across the Pacific to South America," the UN agency specialized in weather, climate and water said in a report on Tuesday.

The dangerous smoke reached Argentina and Chile as of Jan. 6, the report indicated based on data from the national meteorological and hydrological services.

"The fires have already released approximately 400 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere," the WMO said, citing the EU's Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service, and added that wildfires emit toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and non-methane organic compounds into the atmosphere.

Bushfires in Australia, which started last August and continue to rage in the summer months in the southern hemisphere, have exacerbated the situation.

Although bushfires are common in Australia, this year they started in the south, instead of the north, and have so far gutted over 20 million acres.

"Catastrophic and unprecedented bushfires in Australia have killed more than 22 people, destroyed hundreds of homes and burned hundreds of thousands of hectares of land, causing massive devastation to wildlife, ecosystems and the environment," according to the report.

The WMO said southern and eastern parts of Australia had catastrophic or extremely dangerous fire conditions due to a combination of temperatures well above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) degrees in the first week of 2020.

"Nationally, November rainfall was very much below average, the driest on record out of 120 Novembers since 1900," it added.

Citing Australia's national Met organization's figures, the WMO said temperatures are expected to rise again by Jan. 10 after a short respite.