Smoke & Ash From New South Wales Bushfires Reaches S. Island New Zealand, 1,200 Miles Away

[hatrack]

The catastrophic bushfires burning through rural New South Wales and Queensland are now so huge the effects have reached New Zealand. Towns in the South Island are being blanketed with thick black smoke and dust, with reports stating it could hit the North Island by Sunday.

"The dust & smoke from the #NSWfires is quite prominent on satellite imagery as gets (sic) transported across the Tasman Sea onto New Zealand's South Island," NIWA Weather tweeted earlier. "Some of the dust may cross the North Island on Sunday night."

Link to tweet

Satellite imagery accompanying the tweet shows a bold grey mass appear North of Sydney on Friday morning, which by Saturday afternoon had travelled across the Tasman Sea, news.com.au reports. Residents have also started sharing snaps of their of their neighbourhoods as smoke sweeps in, as well as showing a frightening red tinge to the sky.

"There are currently 81 fires burning in NSW and the smoke has reached New Zealand. Feels like I've ended up in a Mad Max scene with stormy skies to the east," Twitter user Dale Wowk wrote earlier, along with a video of his affected surrounds. The short clip pans around him to show a moody sky sweeping across from behind a mountain top as the sky turns an ominous rusty red.

Link to tweet

EDIT

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12283808