Australian Wildfire Smoke Obscures Skies Half a World Away

Smoke from deadly bush fires that have devastated Australia has now spread halfway across the world, darkening skies in Argentina and beyond. As Sydney and Canberra on Wednesday faced another day of toxic haze shrouding the skyline, U.S. weather satellite captured the smoke crossing South America and spreading out over Buenos Aires before it drifted into the Atlantic Ocean — some 7,328 miles (11,793 kilometers) east of Sydney — according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

More than 25 million acres (10 million hectares) have burned, which is about the size of Indiana and five times larger than Wales in the U.K. The fires are so large they are generating their own weather systems and causing dry lightning strikes that in turn ignite more blazes.

The death toll since the fire season began has risen to 25, with the announcement on Wednesday that a car accident last week that killed a 43-year-old firefighter from Victoria state was caused by the blazes. More than 1,500 homes have been destroyed in New South Wales alone this fire season and the tally is rising daily as the fires continue to burn and authorities assess damage. The University of Sydney estimates that 480 million animals have been killed by the bushfires in the state since September.

The Australian government has pledged A$2 billion ($1.4 billion) over two years to assist recovery efforts, focused on repairing infrastructure and boosting mental-health care. Prominent Australian residents, including actor Russell Crowe, called for more action on climate change to mitigate the risks of more devastating infernos.