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Tag: Bolivia

Many of the photos circulating of wildfires in the Amazon, are not of the Amazon

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags 8 Comments on Many of the photos circulating of wildfires in the Amazon, are not of the Amazon
Bolivia Fires
An actual photo of some of the wildfires in Bolivia, as seen from the 747 Supertanker. It was posted by Global Supertanker August 24, 2019.

According to an article at CNN, “Some of the most-shared images of the Amazon rainforest fires are old or are not of the Amazon”. Their article includes many examples of incorrectly attributed photos.

One of the most glaring examples is very familiar to many wildland firefighters and is often called the “Elk Bath” photo (below). It was taken August 6, 2000 by John McColgan, a Forest Service employee who was assigned as a Fire Behavior Analyst on a fire in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana. It was taken as part of his official duties and is in the public domain.

Elk Bath photo
Elk Bath photo, taken August 6, 2000 by John McColgan, a Forest Service employee who was assigned as a Fire Behavior Analyst on a fire in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana.

Below is where the Elk Bath photo was posted on Twitter. It is at the bottom-right. The top-right photo, according to CNN is from a 2018 wildfire in Sweden.

The photo at the top of this article is a legitimate photo of some of the fires in Bolivia, as seen from the 747 Supertanker. It was posted by Global Supertanker August 24, 2019. The air tanker arrived in Bolivia at 1:37 a.m. local time Friday August 23 at Viru Viru International Airport outside the capital city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra and began sorties on fires later in the day.

The two photos below do not show fires, but they were also taken from the 747 Supertanker showing scenes in Bolivia. They might give us a glimpse of some of the fuels and terrain involved.

Bolivia 747 Supertanker
Taken from the 747 Supertanker in Bolivia and posted August 24, 2019. Global Supertanker photo.
Bolivia 747 Supertanker
Taken from the 747 Supertanker in Bolivia and posted August 24, 2019. Global Supertanker photo.

Smoke from wildfires turns day into night in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , 2 Comments on Smoke from wildfires turns day into night in Sao Paulo, Brazil
fires wildfires Brazil Bolivia
Map showing heat (the red dots) and smoke in Bolivia and Brazil detected by a satellite August 14, 2019. Click to enlarge.

Smoke from hundreds of fires in the Amazon Basin combined with clouds Monday afternoon to plunge a major South American city into darkness.

Numerous fires in Bolivia and the Amazon Basin in Brazil have been creating smoke in recent days that got pushed hundreds of miles by a cold front to Sao Paulo, turning the sky dark.

Below is an excerpt from an article in the Washington Post:

“The smoke [Monday] didn’t come from fires in the state of Sao Paulo, but from very dense and wide fires that have been happening for several days in [the state of] Rondonia and Bolivia,” Josélia Pegorim, a meteorologist with Climatempo, said in an interview with Globo. “The cold front changed direction and its winds transported the smoke to Sao Paulo.”

The news highlighted the number of forest fires in Brazil, which rose by more than 80 percent this year, according to data released this week by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

“This central Brazil and south of the Amazon Rainforest region has been undergoing a prolonged drought,” Alberto Setzer, a researcher at INPE, said in an interview with local media outlets. “And there are some places where there has not fallen a drop of rain for three months.”

Most of the Amazon was once considered fireproof, but as climate change and deforestation remake the world, wildfires are increasing in frequency and intensity, recent research has shown.

In the Amazon region, according to NASA, fires are rare for much of the year because wet weather prevents them from starting and spreading. However, in July and August, activity typically increases due to the arrival of the dry season. Many people use fire to maintain farmland and pastures or to clear land for other purposes. Typically, activity peaks in early September and mostly stops by November.

The map above, showing heat and smoke in Brazil and Bolivia on August 14, is the best we could find. More recent satellite imagery has either clouds, or smoke so dense over very large areas that smoke from individual fires couldn’t be distinguished from smoke covering very large areas.