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#pyrocumulonimbus

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#GrandCanyon, #Utah #wildfires creating "#FireClouds" that can form their own weather systems

August 1, 2025

"Two wildfires burning in the western United States — including one that has become a '#megafire' on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon — are so hot that they're spurring the formation of 'fire clouds' that can create their own #ErraticWeather systems.

"In #Arizona, the wind-whipped #DragonBravoFire that destroyed the #GrandCanyonLodge is 9% contained and has charred more than 164 square miles to become the largest fire now burning in the continental U.S. and one of the top 10 largest in recorded Arizona history. Getting around it would be roughly like driving from New York City to Washington, D.C.

"Another large fire in #MonroeUT, has burned 75 square miles since July 13 and is 11% contained, officials said Thursday. Evacuation orders were issued Wednesday for several towns in the fire's path, and scorched power poles prompted the shutoff of electricity in other nearby communities in south-central #Utah.

"Utah Gov. Spencer Cox declared an emergency Thursday as #wildfires grew around the state and planned to visit Monroe on Friday.

"Towering convection clouds known as #pyrocumulus clouds have been spotted over Arizona's blaze for seven consecutive days, fueling the fire with dry, powerful winds, fire information officer Lisa Jennings said. They form when air over the fire becomes #superheated and rises in a large smoke column. The giant billowing clouds can be seen for hundreds of miles and can resemble an anvil.

"Their more treacherous big brother, a fire-fueled thunderstorm known as the #pyrocumulonimbus cloud, sent rapid winds shooting in all directions this week as a smoke column formed from the Utah fire then collapsed on itself, fire team information officer Jess Clark said.

" 'If they get high enough, they can also create #downdrafts, and that's something we really watch out for because that can quickly spread the fire and can be very dangerous for firefighters who are doing their work on the ground,' Jennings said.

"Multiple fire crews in Utah were forced to retreat Wednesday as the unpredictable climate created by the clouds threatened their safety, officials said. Fire crews in both Utah and Arizona had better control of the blazes, but containment has been slipping as the fires grow rapidly.

"The same type of cloud, which the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has dubbed the 'fire-breathing dragon of clouds,' recently formed a fire tornado that tore through an eastern Utah neighborhood with wind speeds estimated at 122 miles per hour."

Read more:
cbsnews.com/news/grand-canyon-

#Firenado #ExtremeWeather #WildfireWeather #ClimateChange #GlobalBurning #USWx #ExtremeWx
#Utah #GrandCanyon

The intense heat from wildfires fuels updrafts, lifting smoke and vapor into the atmosphere. As the plume rises, water vapor cools and condenses around particles (including ash particles) to form cloud droplets. Eventually, that creates the billowing clouds we see atop the smoke. These pyrocumulus clouds, like this one over California’s Line fire in early September 2024, can develop further into full thunderstorms, known in this case as pyrocumulonimbus. The storm from this cloud included rain, strong winds, lightning, and hail. Unfortunately, storms like these can generate thousands of lightning strikes, feeding into the wildfire rather than countering it. (Image credit: L. Dauphin; via NASA Earth Observatory)

https://fyfluiddynamics.com/2024/10/when-fires-make-rain/

Continued thread

#LineFire has “room to grow now in essentially 3 directions & there are population centers & pretty dense, dry vegetation in between those population centers,” UCLA #climate scientist Daniel Swain said.

The fire sparked Thurs & burned ~3,800 acres by Sat AM, before ballooning thousands of acres through the afternoon. The blaze was so intense that it also formed a towering #pyrocumulonimbus cloud —a fire-generated thunderstorm— that was sending out its own lightning, erratic winds & brief rain.

Das Park Fire in #Kalifornien hat bereits 600 Quadratmeilen verbrannt und erzeugt gefährliche #Pyrocumulonimbus-Wolken (pyroCb). Diese #Rauchgewitterwolken können #Blitze erzeugen, die weitere Brände entfachen. PyroCbs entstehen durch intensive #Hitze und trockenen #Brennstoff und verstärken die #Feuer. #Klimawandel begünstigt ihre Entstehung, und sie beeinflussen das Wetter sowie globale Temperaturen durch die Absorption von #Sonnenlicht.

#ParkFire #Wildfire #PyroCb

grist.org/science/california-p

Grist · California’s Park Fire is spawning its own smoke thundercloudsBy Matt Simon
Continued thread

19/

Again from:
web.archive.org/web/2023102409

Emerging "fires also releasing new weather: fire wind, fire whirls, fire tornadoes and fire thunderstorms, those last produced by #pyrocumulonimbus clouds [...] which can reach 200 miles wide and stretch high into the atmosphere, carrying anything that’s burned upward, and which can produce thousands of new strikes of what is called pyrogenic lightning, igniting potentially dozens of new fires anywhere within a 50-mile radius of the cloud"

The New York Times · ‘It’s Like Our Country Exploded’: Canada’s Year of FireBy David Wallace-Wells

Deforestation, climate disruption and bushfires

"Unprecedented' Canadian wildfires made worse by climate change, scientists find. Australia is also likely to see 'more frequent and more severe extreme weather events' due to global warming. Scientists warn severe weather will get worse. During the Black Summer fires, Australia saw roughly the same number of fire-induced thunderstorms, known as pyrocumulonimbus, as seen in the country over several decades".
"One of the worst impacts of fires like those in Canada and during the Black Summer in Australia was the widespread impact on air quality. It's hard to adapt to — if the air we breathe isn't safe to breathe."
abc.net.au/news/2023-08-23/res

Climate crisis made spate of Canada wildfires twice as likely, scientists
theguardian.com/world/2023/aug

Deforestation and climate change
climatecouncil.org.au/deforest

What is the scale of deforestation and its role in climate change?
"Land use change, principally deforestation, contributes 12–20% of global greenhouse gas emissions."
lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/ex

"Every increment of warming results in rapidly escalating hazards." IPCC
ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/

ABC News'Unprecedented' Canadian wildfires made worse by climate change, scientists findBy Michael Slezak
Continued thread

"#Pyrocumulonimbus clouds form when the heat of an intense #wildfire sends smoke as high as the lower stratosphere. When this happens, the pillar of hot, smoky air cools, and a cloud coalesces at its peak.

The #winds produced by these cloud formations are extreme and unpredictable. They can spread flames far faster than normal, and launch embers kilometres away, sparking fresh fires. And they produce #lighting, which can also pose a #FireRisk."

castanet.net/news/BC/440342/A-

www.castanet.netA ‘fire-breathing dragon of clouds’: These are Canada’s wildfire-induced super storms - BC NewsMore than a hundred times this year, the grey, billowing smoke hovering above one of Canada’s many forest fires has suddenly been sucked into a chimney of hot air, then exploded several kilometres into the sky.

I no longer think are the most terrifying of ; not even close.

Because we have pumped so much (and ) into the , we'll be seeing more storms like this, in more places.

"This is not planet as we found it. This is a new place—a planet we have made, with an atmosphere more conducive to than at any time in the past 3 million years."

smithsonianmag.com/science-nat

Smithsonian MagazineThe World’s First Wildfire Tornado Blazed a Path of Destruction Through AustraliaBy John Vaillant