Wildfires

Wildfires - Australia

Residents are ordered to evacuate town north of Sydney immediately as massive bushfire closes in - blanketing the city in a thick layer of smoke. An emergency warning has been issued for residents of Colo Heights, about 90 minutes north west of Sydney, to leave their homes immediately as an out-of-control bushfire approaches. An 85,000-hectare bushfire at Gospers Mountain in the Wollemi National Park has escalated under hot and windy conditions. The bushfire is spreading rapidly and spot fires are springing up ahead of the main blaze.

Smoke from Australia's bushfires has spread to South America

Smoke particles from bushfires in Australia have reached South America, in a striking illustration of the intensity of the unprecedented blazes. Satellites show atmospheric pollution created by the fires across New South Wales and Queensland has travelled more than 10,000 kilometres to Chile and Argentina. Researchers at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in Reading, UK, found a plume of carbon monoxide and aerosols trailing across the Pacific Ocean to South America.