The giant plume of smoke made its way across the Tasman Sea, spawned by the rampaging Australian wildfires and borne on a quick jet of westerly winds. By Sunday afternoon, it had blotted out the sun in Auckland, New Zealand, and tinted the light an ominous rust.

As authorities feared, Australia saw a dramatic escalation of its wildfire crisis on Friday night and Saturday, with the hardest-hit state this time being New South Wales. It will take another day for fire a to ease as temperatures drop but winds remain high.