Australia's extreme heat required a new color on the charts.

There has been a very odd absence of water vapor at the Intertropical Convergence Zones at the Equator of Earth. It has been noted for about the past 16 hours. I believe the reason is the extreme heat over Australia. This is extremely hot for Australia. 52 degrees Celcius is the equivalent of 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Wildfires have been out of control, yet again.

This is what a normal Intertropical Convergence Zone looks like with water vapor evident.

Below is what the Intertropical Convergence Zone has looked like over the past 16 or so hours.

January 8, 2013
1825 gmt
The Weather Channel Western Hemisphere Satellite

The Water Vapor is absent. Not only that but it is headed south toward Australia.

Think tropical rainforests and their loss of water vapor. They have very shallow root systems.

January 9, 2013
1222 gmt
The Weather Channel Western Hemisphere Satellite

It has become growingly worse and the loss of water vapor at the Intertropical Convergence Zone is global.


January 8, 2013
1834 gmt 
The Weather Channel Global Pacific Satellite 

The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ICZ) in the Pacific has no water vapor. Not only that, but, to the left side of this satellite it is noted the accumulation of water vapor not contained by the ICZ. This area of the globe is seeing cross Equatorial movement of air masses containing water vapor.

January 8, 2013
0133 pm est
The Weather Channel Africa - Europe Satellite.

Here again the ICZ is absent across Africa and into the Indian Ocean. There has been a chronic water vapor conduit between Africa and South America for about eight years now and it is persisting across the Atlantic Ocean.

January 9, 2013
1315 gmt 
The Weather Channel Australian Satellite

There is the water vapor and today Australia is reporting a break in the heat. The planetary water vapor is becoming sparse throughout the troposphere because of the increasing heat. This is all part of the negative feedback loop of high concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane due to human activity.

For as tragic as this is in Australia, it is a global event adding to the stress Earth's biotic systems experience due to Greenhouse Gas Emissions by human activity.

Last Updated : Wednesday, January 09, 2013 8:49 AM

SYDNEY — Bush fires raged out of control (click here) across Australia’s most populous state Tuesday, fanned by intense heat and high winds in “catastrophic” conditions that targeted homes and triggered evacuations.

More than 140 fires were burning across New South Wales state late in the day, around 40 of them uncontained, state Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney.

“You don’t get conditions worse than this, we are at the catastrophic level,” he said.

Introduced after the 2009 Black Saturday firestorm in Victoria state, which claimed 173 lives, a “catastrophic” rating means fires will be uncontrollable, unpredictable and fast-moving, with evacuation the only safe option....

A charred vehicle sits near the remains of a home destroyed by a wildfire between Dunalley and Boomer Bay, east of the Tasmanian capital of Hobart, Australia.(Photo: Chris Kidd, AP)

7:09a.m. EST January 7, 2013

HOBART, Australia (AP) — Officials searched Monday (click here) for bodies among the charred ruins of more than 100 homes and other buildings destroyed by wildfires in the Australian island state of Tasmania. Around 100 residents remained unaccounted for, three days after the fires broke out.

As scores of fires raged across Australia's parched southeast, a volunteer firefighter suffered severe burns to his hands and face while fighting a grass fire near Gundaroo village, about 220 kilometers (138 miles) southwest of Sydney, the New South Wales state Rural Fire Service said in a statement. The firefighter was flown to a hospital in Sydney....