Klicken oder tippen Sie hier, um die interaktive Anwendung zu nutzen

How big is the burned area in Australia - compared to your region

The bushfires in Australia have reached apocalyptic dimensions: Around ten million hectares have burned down. Drag the orange circle to compare the extent of the burned area to any region in the world.

10 million hectare (Update: 8.1.2020)

Australia is burning: record temperatures and months of severe drought have triggered a series of massive bushfires on the continent. The fire has reached apocalyptic dimensions. More than ten million hectares have burned (as of 8 January). This corresponds with the entire land mass of Iceland - or as if all of southern Germany had burned down. The orange circle on the map represents the area that had burned to date. You can move it to any place on earth or use the search mask to enter a location and see how big the burned area is compared to your region.

Australia on fire

Feuer in Australien - Känguru
A kangaroo runs past a burning house in the small town of Lake Conjola, on the south coast of New South Wales, on New Year's Eve Photo: Matthew Abbott/The New York Times/laif

Green in October - now drowning in smoke

Slide
Satellite images show what it looked like around Lake Conjola before the bushfires - and the dense smoke at the end of December Satellite images: 2019 Planet Labs, Inc

Drops on the burning forest

Feuer in Australien
A fire-fighting helicopter flies over a bushfire near Bairnsdale (Victoria) in the East Gippsland Shire region of Victoria Photo: State Government Of Victoria/dpa

Galloping from the flames

Feuer in Australien - Pferd
A horse escapes from a bushfire in a residential area near the city of Nowra (New South Wales) Photo: Saeed Khan/AFP

Embers inside a tree

Feuer in Australien - Baum
A tree burns from within - hours after the fire front passed over the Bundanoon area in the southern highlands of New South Wales on January 5 Photo: Brett Hemmings/Getty Images

Burnt out

Feuer in Australien - ausgebranntes Auto
Nothing remained of this car on Quinlans Street in Quaama (New South Wales) after a nightly bushfire on January 6 Photo: Saeed Khan/AFP

Rescued

Feuer in Australien
A wild animal rescuer carries a koala on Kangaroo Island. On Australia's third largest island, 25,000 koalas could have perished, half of the population there, experts estimate Photo: David Mariuz/AAP/dpa

Threatening smoke front

Feuer in Australien
Lake Conjola: Boats are pulled ashore while clouds of smoke rise above the shore on the other side of Lake Canjola Photo: Robert Oerlemans/AP/dpa

Gigantic cloud of smoke

Slide
A view from space shows the extent of the yellowish clouds of smoke that moved from Australia to the coasts of South America in January, in comparison to the time before the great fires Satellite images: NASA Worldview

Sea of Flames

Feuer in Australien - Feuerwehr
Firefighters fight against the strong wind on New Year's Eve to protect nearby houses near the city of Nowra (New South Wales) Photo: Saeed Khan/AFP

Death on Kangaroo Island

Feuer in Australien
A dead kangaroo is stuck in a fence on Kangaroo Island. According to conservative estimates by scientists, around 800 million animals had been killed in the state of New South Wales alone by the beginning of the year Photo: David Mariuz/AAP/dpa

Further megafires expected

Feuer in Australien
Clouds of smoke near Bairnsdale (Victoria), some 300 kilometres from Melbourne: the battle against the flames is far from over Photo: Glen Morey/dpa
Lorem

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

Read more
Drought in Germany in satellite image comparison
Before and after pictures show what visible consequences the drought in summer 2018 had for Germany.