Fire panel calls for climate forecasts

CANBERRA, Australia — Investigators of Australia’s catastrophic wildfire season on Friday recommended greater efforts to forecast the impacts of climate change on specific parts of the country, warning fire behavior was becoming more extreme.

The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements began in February while wildfires were ravaging vast swathes of the nation’s southeast in a fire season that is now known as Black Summer.

The fires killed at least 33 people including 10 firefighters, destroyed more than 3,000 homes, razed 47 million acres and displaced thousands of residents. One firefighter was killed when an extraordinary weather event described by authorities as a “fire tornado” flipped a 10ton fire truck upside down.

The Royal Commission, which is the country’s highest form of investigation, said smoke that blanketed much of Australia, including major cities, had contributed to hundreds of deaths.

The commission made 80 recommendations, including for a greater harmonization of data across Australia on climate and disaster risks.

“Improving weather forecasting and climate projection capability is important to improve the ability to predict or estimate the likelihood of extreme” wildfires, the report said, citing the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, an Australian government agency.

The report found further global warming over the next 20 years “is inevitable.”

“Floods and bushfires are expected to become more frequent and intense,” the report said.

Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud said the federal government would work quickly with the states to implement the recommendations.