Weather

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Worksheet: Major wind systems

Sheet 2: Bush fires

Smaller bush fires are normal in shifting cultivation areas.

But sometimes it is also industrial burning, i.e. burning forest areas to enlarge plantations.
Normally the heavy rain in December extinguishes all fires.

But under El Niño conditions there is no rain…

Look at the following pictures what severe drought conditions mean.

Bush fires in Borneo, 1997 (Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing The National University of Singapore.All images are acquired by the SPOT satellites. Copyright of images CNES.) source: http://satgeo.de/satgeo/methoden/anwendungen/s108.htm

Bush fires over Sumatra and Kalimantan, Sept. 1997 (image: NOAA/NESDIS) author: Bildungszentrum Marktdorf, Project group ENSO  (Source: http://www.enso.info/globaus.html)

La Niña, on the other hand, can mean lots of rain in the following areas:

South Asia (during monsoon times), North and North East Australia, South Africa, Northern South America, Central America, Hawaii.

The funny side of it all.  author: Dana Summers, 
source: http://jam-web.de/el-nino/cartoons.php

About this page:

- Author: Dr. Schrettenbrunner - University of Nürnberg - Germany
- scientific reviewing:
- educational reviewing: Dr. Yvonne Schleicher, Julia Heres
- last update: 09.09.03