Australia’s wildfires remain blazing and, despite some soaking rainfall in some areas early this week, the overall weather pattern won’t provide much relief in the coming days and weeks. AccuWeather predicts “continued below normal precipitation” in the drought and wildfire-plagued states of New South Wales and Victoria through January, according to AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alan Reppert. The factors contributing to the country’s wildfires have led to an “extreme and extraordinary fire situation that may be the worst in history,” said AccuWeather Founder and CEO Dr. Joel N. Myers.
AccuWeather estimates the total damage and economic loss caused by the Australia wildfires from September 2019 and into 2020 will be $110 billion, according to Myers, based on an analysis incorporating independent methods to evaluate all direct and indirect impacts of the fires based on a variety of sources.
AccuWeather’s estimate includes damage to homes and businesses as well as their contents and cars, job and wage losses, farm and crop losses, infrastructure damage, auxiliary business losses, school closures and the costs of power outages to businesses and individuals as well as destruction of wildlife. The estimate also accounts for economic losses because of highway closures, evacuations and increased insurance premiums throughout the affected areas, as well as reduced value of real estate across the country — home to 25.2 million people — firefighting costs, flight cancellations and delays, and the current and long-term residual health effects — including the increased risk of heart attacks and possible bone mass loss — on those impacted by dirty air.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the people greatest at risk from wildfires “include people who have heart or lung diseases.” Fire-produced air pollution also has been linked to many other diseases.
“The forest fires hitting Australia are doing great damage to the Australian economy, their way of life, the health of the people, and the environment, which will persist for years,” said Myers.
The fires have been blamed for killing at least 25 people and almost half a billion animals in Australia. Tens of thousands of residents evacuated their homes in New South Wales and Victoria as a state of emergency was declared late last week. The wildfires have damaged an estimated 20 million acres since starting in September 2019, according to Reuters, a land area about the size of South Carolina.
By comparison, California’s worst fire season was 2018 when almost two million acres were burned. This means the Australia fires have burned 10 times the area burned in California.
