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Re:Bushfires in Australia so big they generate pyrocumulonim... by longtom on Tuesday December 31, 2019 @12:14PM (#21922597)
Thanks. Interesting how rare and extreme these events are. This suggests a runway process is involved in that the fire spreads and multiplies in just the right conditions, but presumably it takes a while for nature to grow enough to become vulnerable to a large fire again? Not enough data here to tell for sure. It is interesting that some plants have evolved to require fire to survive and reproduce (pyrophytic plants), so wild fire is by no means unnatural. There does not seem to be a positive trend here.
Re:Bushfires in Australia so big they generate pyrocumulonim... by viraptor on Tuesday December 31, 2019 @02:16PM (#21923682)
So graphs like that should be read together with information about how the bush management changed over time. See this long thread for example: https://twitter.com/JediJeremy/status/1208997157346242561

I believe in recent past we've gone through: "everything's burning, let's put it out", "we've had massive fires, let's do planned burns", and now "let's defund organisations that can do effective bush management". This will explain some of the changes visible. The current area is due to the buildup nobody managed - neither by government organised burns, nor fire stick farming.

Re:Bushfires in Australia so big they generate pyrocumulonim... by salty_biscuits on Tuesday December 31, 2019 @08:47PM (#21926084)
The window for conducting planned burns has also been shrinking over time (either too dry and it will run away or too wet).
Re:Bushfires in Australia so big they generate pyrocumulonim... by StreamBright on Wednesday January 01, 2020 @03:30AM (#21927228)
Yep this is exactly it. There is a periodic phenomenon going on here. We do not measure or collect data long enough to look at it like that. I think the trend is hard to spot here.