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by larnmar 2352 days ago
Is anyone aware of any compelling evidence that these fires were meaningfully worsened by climate change?
2 comments

You mean like how this year is the latest in a long run of parts of the country breaking temperature records year round, as well the general uptick in mean-surface temperature since 1950 - http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/annual/aus/2018/#tabs=... ?

Or that we're in one of the longest droughts on record, with many rural towns prior to this (and still actively) running out of water (as in, no water in the pipes at all), and Sydney on water-restrictions?

Mysteriously, Australia has been having a multi-decadal run of consistently seeing the factors which would be worsened by global warming, get worse.

What would you consider as compelling evidence?

Predictions made 10 years ago are now being met.

Some predictions are being met. The ones that aren't are generally forgotten.
Fire seasons are getting longer because of climate change.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-17/drought-bushfire-seas... (note that this is before the current bushfires)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26172867

Droughts are getting worse because of climate change (and of course in Australia droughts make bushfires worse because there is more dry scrub, and hazard reduction burns are too dangerous to do).

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/06/water-re...

Hey gd1, your comment is dead so I can't reply. But here is your BOM citation (it also has your requested timeseries data):

Australia's driest year on record

Nationally-averaged rainfall 40% below average for the year at 277.6 mm

The national total rainfall for 2019 was 40% below the 1961–1990 average at 277.6 mm (the 1961–1990 average is 465.2 mm). This makes 2019 the driest year in the 119 years since 1900.

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/annual/aus/#tabs=Rainf...