The photos attached to this post are taken just south of Penrith NSW and around Warragamba Dam.
During December 2019 and January 2020 vast areas of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and areas around Silverdale and Warragamba Dam were scorched by bushfires and between October 2019 and February 2020 plumes of smoke covered large areas of Sydney for days at a time.
The images attached to this post were taken during January 2020 showing one of the out of control bushfires burning close to the township of Warragamba and the evening sunset image was taken just south of Penrith NSW.
According to Australian Geographic (March / April 2020 edition, Page 45) the fires across eastern Australia burnt approximately 16 million hectares, with 5,900 buildings destroyed, some 250,000 people required to evacuate (including my parents and my wife and I at Batemans Bay on December 31 2019), some 140 aircraft used during the crises, over 3,000 homes lost, large numbers of animals killed (Exact toll will never be known) and 33 fatalities. The full economic losses are still being worked out.
West of Sydney, more than 80% of the World Heritage listed Greater Blue Mountains area was impacted. The bushfire crises came to an end during the early part of February 2020 as a result of a major rain event and a reversal of the weather systems in play.
At the time the images were taken in January 2020, my my wife and I were watching this fire burn from a safe distance and occasionally watching aircraft make low level water bombing.