Big Picture

Australia is in the midst of an environmental catastrophe, with raging wildfires making parts of the nation look like a blood-red apocalyptic hellscape.

As dramatic as the scene on the ground might be, though, the view from above may be even more disturbing as images of the wildfires taken from space show the full extent of the devastation.

On Friday, Business Insider published a series of images and videos of the wildfires taken from space.

One particularly striking visual is courtesy of the Japan Meteorological Agencys Himawari-8 satellite, which photographs the Earth every 10 minutes. The agency produced an animation of the scene in Australia from space by stringing together a days worth of the images, providing agrim off-world view of both the brushfires and their smoke plumes.

Another powerful image shared by Business Insider shows what the situation looks like during the day from the perspective of the European Space Agencys Sentinel-2 satellite. It was taken on December 31 over the bushfire in Bateman Bay, Australia, and its impossible to even see the ground in some parts of the photo through all of the heavy smoke.

As of Friday, the wildfires have killed at least 19 people and destroyed more than 1,400 homes. Theyre now so big, theyre even generating their own self-perpetuating weather phenomena and according to experts, Australias situation will likely get worse before it gets better.

We dont usually see fires like this until January or February, but these have been going on since spring, Australia-based climate scientist Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick told NBC News.Its already the worst fire season on record, and were really just in our first month of summer.

READ MORE: Stunning images from space reveal the shocking extent of Australias bushfire crisis [Business Insider]

More on wildfires: Devastating Fires in Amazon Rainforest Can Be Seen From Space

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The Australian Wildfires Are So Bad You Can See Them From Space - Futurism