The global systems are all linked … we can't dissociate them. But … if you're sitting in one area it's very hard to imagine that the weather 10,000 kilometres away (in India) is actually going to have an impact (in NSW, Australia). The rain that may normally occur in these regions at this time hasn't actually come down due to that global event. And so because of that these regions are hot, dry and windy. These are the perfect conditions for extreme fires like what we're seeing at the moment.
Trent Penman is an associate professor at the University of Melbourne. The south-west monsoon in Asia typically occurs between June and September every year — those winds then leave the region and move south. However, this year the record-breaking rainfalls didn't retreat from India until mid-October. This led to a delay to the big wet in Darwin and therefore left the eastern coast dry and fire-prone.
