The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
As Australia’s “catastrophic” and deadly wildfire emergency continues, UN weather experts on Tuesday echoed Government warnings for people to remain vigilant in the face of the fast-moving threat and tinderbox conditions.
In Geneva, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) noted that dozens of fires are raging in eastern New South Wales and southeast Queensland, amid reports that three people lost their lives in the fires at the weekend.
“Apart from the immediate physical threat…when, you know, authorities issue a message of catastrophic fire danger, the message there is basically, “Get out, get away,’” Clare Nullis, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) told journalists.
Citing Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology description of the situation as “evolving and dangerous”, Ms. Nullis said that conditions were likely to remain dry, with little to no rain forecast.
“The fires are due to a combination of factors including low soil moisture, heat and importantly, wind direction and wind speed,” she explained.
New South Wales has declared a state of emergency as parts of the state - including the Greater Sydney area and Queensland - face a "catastrophic" fire danger - the highest level of warning.
Although bush and grassfires are common in Australia, the emergency is linked to increasingly warm temperatures over the course of the last century.
“According to the Bureau of Meteorology of Australia, it’s been the second warmest January to October on record for Australia as a whole and these are records going back 110 years,” Ms. Nullis said, adding that the number of days falling into the category of “fire weather days” has increased.
“The most extreme 10 per cent of fire weather days - which is how, you know, they measure the fire index - has increased in recent decades across many regions of Australia, especially across Southern and Eastern Australia, there has been an associated increase in the length of the fire weather season and climate change including increasing temperatures is contributing to these changes.”
According to WMO, many at-risk communities face winds of 60 to 80 kilometres per hour (37 to 50 miles per hour) and temperatures in the mid to high 30s Celsius (around 95 Fahrenheit).
Although a cool weather front may ease fire dangers, “a combination of dry and gusty winds and a shift in wind direction will mean people in the impacted areas will need to remain vigilant,” Ms. Nullis insisted.
Between 1967 and 2013, major Australian bushfires resulted in over 8,000 injuries and 433 deaths, close to 50 per cent of all fatalities from major Australian natural disasters, excluding heatwaves, Australian Government figures show.
Over the same period, bushfires cost approximately $3.2 billion.
- Exterior shot, Palais des Nations, car passing behind pedestrians taking photographs.
- Wide shot, United Nations press room, journalists.
- Close-up, journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Clare Nullis, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) spokesperson:“Apart from the immediate physical threat, and when, you know, authorities issue a message of catastrophic fire danger, the message there is basically, “Get out, get away.’”
- Close-up, journalist, profile.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Clare Nullis, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) spokesperson: “According to the Bureau of Meteorology of Australia, it’s been the second warmest January to October on record for Australia as a whole, and these are records going back 110 years.”
- Medium shot, journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Clare Nullis, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) spokesperson: “The fires are due to a combination of factors including low soil moisture, heat and importantly, wind direction and wind speed.”
- Close-up, journalist’s hands typing on laptop.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Clare Nullis, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) spokesperson:“The most extreme 10 per cent of fire weather days, which is how, you know, they measure the fire index has increased in recent decades across many regions of Australia, especially across Southern and Eastern Australia; there has been an associated increase in the length of the fire weather season and climate change including increasing temperatures is contributing to these changes.”
- Medium shot, journalist typing on laptop, spokesperson to rear, journalist in foreground, blurred.
- Close-up, journalists’ hands typing on laptops, podium with speakers to rear.
- Close-up, journalists in profile.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN rights chief urges de-escalation in Tigray amid rising tensions and violence.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF , WHO , OHCHR
In Sudan, sick and starving children ‘wasting away’ – UN humanitarians
Relentless violence, famine and disease are picking off Sudan’s children while attacks on healthcare and a lack of aid access hamper efforts to help them, UN humanitarian agencies warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Monday gave an update to the Human Rights Council on the situation in El Fasher, Sudan.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“A series of new Israeli operations and settlement plans in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, risk seriously undermining the viability of a Palestinian state and the realisation of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination,” the UN Human Rights Spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told the bi-weekly press conference in Geneva today.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNIS
UN voices concern over chemical spraying incident on Lebanon’s Blue Line
The UN reiterated concerns on Friday at reports that Israeli forces sprayed herbicide over areas north of the Blue Line separating Lebanon from Israel. The development poses a “serious humanitarian risk” to civilians living there, said the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), briefing journalists in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Gaza: Five patients evacuated as Rafah reopens while ‘too many stayed behind’ – WHO
As time is running out for thousands of critically ill patients in Gaza, hope is alive for medical evacuations to increase with the reopening of the Rafah crossing in the southern part of the Strip, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNOG , OHCHR
This Sunday marks five years of crisis in Myanmar. Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights, and James Rodehaver, chief of the Myanmar team, today spoke on the conduct of recent military-imposed elections, deploring the failure to respect the fundamental human rights of the country’s citizens. The process served only to exacerbate violence and societal polarization.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF
Brutal Gaza war erased years of progress on education, in an “assault on the future itself” – UNICEF
Restoring Gaza’s shattered education system is “lifesaving” and getting children back into schools must be an immediate priority, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , HRC
Volker Türk, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner, made the following remarks during a briefing to a Special Session on Iran at the Human Rights Council.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , UNOPS , UNIS
Amid the launch of President Trump's Board of Peace and reconstruction talks on Gaza, UN aid agencies insisted on Friday that what Gazans need most is immediate relief from the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe there.
2
6
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences , Images | HRC
At UN, war crimes probe pledges to continue to work for all impacted by Hamas-Israel conflict
As President Trump launched the international Board of Peace plan for Gaza on Thursday, top independent rights experts tasked by the UN Human Rights Council with investigating grave abuses linked to the Hamas-Israel war pledged to continue their work seeking justice and accountability for all.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said Tuesday UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk was outraged by the repeated large-scale attacks by the Russian Federation on energy infrastructure in Ukraine.