Climate change could lead to increase in dangerous firestorms that were once ‘rare’

Scientists fear climate change will cause a once "rare and unique" weather event to become more common, as they race to develop predictive modelling and tools to help them better understand pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCB), commonly referred to as firestorms.

Lightning from a pyroCB storm breaks
through while bushfires rage nearby.

Jason Sharples, a professor of bushfire dynamics at the University of NSW, records the frequency of these storms around Australia and said between 1998, when relevant records started, and 2018, there were 62 confirmed pyroCBs.

But this bushfire season has seen that figure jump.

Read the story from The Age by Laura Chung and Nick Moir - “Climate change could lead to increase in dangerous firestorms that were once ‘rare’."