Fires: Never on Sunday, Or Not Frequently, Says Study

Sundays are a day of rest for fires, it seems. Or at least, conflagrations happen more frequently on Tuesdays and are less likely on Sundays, a new study by the University of Melbourne (UNIMELB) noted recently.

The research team said in their report, which was published recently in Geophysical Research Letters, that this seems to have a lot to do with religion and culture. This is just one way in which human activities have a strong impact on the global climate in general, they pointed out. 

Fires worldwide, in other words, seem to have a strong connection with the working week and the days of rest assigned by religion. UNIMELB climate scientist Nick Earl noted in a release that Sunday was the least active day for fires in a billion global fires between 2001 and 2013.

From those numbers, Sundays had nine million fewer fires, or eight percent less, than Tuesday had.
"This study shows there's a very clear weekly pattern to fires around the world," said Earl in the release. "Nature doesn't adhere to the weekly cycle, so this really highlights the influence we have on the planet when it comes to fires."

While researchers often look at weekly cycles in the variables of meteorology to note human connections to nature's cycles, this is the first time that a weekly cycle has been examined regarding global fires, confirmed a statement. 

For Australia and the United States, the weekly cycle was very noticeable. Around the world, the cycle was less pronounced. For example, Kazakhstan and areas with higher Muslim populations had a certain number of Thursday and Friday fires, probably because Friday is a day of assembly and prayer for the Muslim faith. That "actually strengthens the argument for how religion impacts our climate," Earl said in the release.

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