This years fire season is has the dubious honour of being worse than last years, and it’s only just begun. More hectares of land have been burnt so far this season than all of last season total.
We’re incredibly fortunate to not live in an area where the fires can easily get to us, the nearest one is 6 Km away. Most days the air heavy with smoke that changes in thickness depending on the wind. Today was a bit different. The wind died down and the smoke wasn’t as low in the air. In fact, it was so high up that it obscured the sky and the whole sky had a dirty orange glow to it most of the day, which gave way to dirty yellow in the afternoon.
The smoke obscuring the sky today si from a fire approximately 90 Km’s away and weather conditions were such that burnt leaves and other ashes were carried up high on the wind all the way to us. This kept the smoke up high in the atmosphere and the resulting effect of the light gave the whole place an eerie feel. These photos were taken at 3:30PM today and don’t convey how weird it felt. I had the feeling I should have been on Mars as the light gave everything a red/orange tinge.
An expected change in wind direction should slow down the advance of some of the worst fires, however at the time of writing, towns south of us were still being evacuated and the Pacific Highway was closed in both directions. Fingers crossed it all works out.