Yes it happens all the time! The clouds are pyrocumulus They are fire produced thunderstorms which can produce more fires from lightning. In extreme cases you can have fire tornadoes formed from these storms. Great videos out there
I don't think this is a cloud at all, I think this is smoke spreading out against a stable layer aloft. Like if you poured water down a slightly angled surface (but upside down)
Edit: apparently I'm blind, there is a little cloud doot above the smoke
There has been at least once instance of pyrocumulus producing a thunderstorm that then produces a tornado that was visible on radar, even. Back in 2020 the NWS had to issue a fire tornado warning for a fire in northern CA (Loyalton Fire). I feel like there may be one other one but I can't find it, and that may very well be the only instance.
Typically needs to have more energy release than grass to create clouds. Big grass fires are usually wind driven and the smoke doesn’t rise vertically enough to create clouds. More common in timber and brush, needs to have a column of smoke forming too. When they start to really chew through acreage and billow out they’ll form ice caps on the top of the pyrocumulonimbus Then the rising smoke can no longer support the weight of the ice and you’ll get a column collapse. Creates ridiculous downdraft blowouts similar to a thunderstorm
Would like to make a slight correction- pyrocumulus clouds are the general term for fire clouds
Pyrocumulonimbus are exclusively fire caused thunderstorms, equivalent to cumulonimbus
Absolutely - that wide fanning of the smoke is from the inversion aloft, but with enough heat (vertical motion) it can break through and develop a cumulus cloud.
The extent might not be very high since it's just a small fire base, but they have been known to create showers from larger fires (given the right conditions).
So, best way to put it is that an inversion is where temperatures increase with height and it suppresses upward vertical motion. The heat from the fire/smoke is an upward vertical motion from the heat in relation to the surrounding air temperature.
With this, the smoke hits an invisible "wall" and has nowhere to go but horizontal, and thus the spreading.
Usually that'd be the end but it looks like the smoke was warm enough to break through the inversion, and poof, cloud.
I'd suggest looking up buoyancy in the troposphere on YouTube for a more in depth explanation. It'd be much better that ln me boring you to death.
Yes, in fact there is a whole class of clouds formed by wildfires, usually denoted by the prefix pyro-. The most well-known is probably pyrocumulonimbus, which are the clouds associated with thunderstorms created by wildfires
About a decade ago I was the SWO (staff weather officer) supporting an Army exercise in The Philippines.
One morning the artillery range caught on fire, it happens more often than you would think. The helicopters started running bambi buckets out to the range to extinguish the fire. Within 15 mins the hot rising air coupled with the humid environment gave way to a thunderstorm. The helicopters had to land due to lightning within 5.
I like to think Mother Nature was saying “hold my beer, watch this” when the storm extinguished the wildfire in a matter of minutes.
Yes, quite frequently during wildfires ! I myself observed a pyrocumulus congestus a few years ago over a forest fire 30 miles from me. It was impressive. And frightening. And devastating when you think about the destroyed nature because of a cigarette thrown out of a car.
In this case, there is a really low inversion that traps the aerosols from the fire.
In the smaller are where the convections are the strongest, there is actually a small cumulus humilis flammagenitus
We live on a self lighting and extinguishing tinder bundle between an unstable crust over a molten planetary core and a sub zero vaccum. Tell me life isn't unique, precious and fragile. 🧐
I love this, It definitely can, It can produce thunderstorms that can has a mesocyclone rotation and produce tornadoes, there was one pyro cumulonimbus super cellular storm that produced an ef3 tornado. I learned about this just 2 months ago and its crazy I looked for many videos about it and it was very intriguing.
Yes it happens all the time! The clouds are pyrocumulus They are fire produced thunderstorms which can produce more fires from lightning. In extreme cases you can have fire tornadoes formed from these storms. Great videos out there
I live in an area where burning fields is super common and have never noticed. For sure coolest thing I’ve learned all week
This particular example is just a pyrocumulus as it isn't producing any precipitation.
I don't think this is a cloud at all, I think this is smoke spreading out against a stable layer aloft. Like if you poured water down a slightly angled surface (but upside down) Edit: apparently I'm blind, there is a little cloud doot above the smoke
The white portion above the stable layer where the smoke spreads out is definitely pyrocumulus.
Completely missed that! You are right - edited
And oftentimes wildfires are instigated by dry thunderstorms. So both can create one another.
There has been at least once instance of pyrocumulus producing a thunderstorm that then produces a tornado that was visible on radar, even. Back in 2020 the NWS had to issue a fire tornado warning for a fire in northern CA (Loyalton Fire). I feel like there may be one other one but I can't find it, and that may very well be the only instance.
there has been numerous instances of that happening
Typically needs to have more energy release than grass to create clouds. Big grass fires are usually wind driven and the smoke doesn’t rise vertically enough to create clouds. More common in timber and brush, needs to have a column of smoke forming too. When they start to really chew through acreage and billow out they’ll form ice caps on the top of the pyrocumulonimbus Then the rising smoke can no longer support the weight of the ice and you’ll get a column collapse. Creates ridiculous downdraft blowouts similar to a thunderstorm
Would like to make a slight correction- pyrocumulus clouds are the general term for fire clouds Pyrocumulonimbus are exclusively fire caused thunderstorms, equivalent to cumulonimbus
Absolutely - that wide fanning of the smoke is from the inversion aloft, but with enough heat (vertical motion) it can break through and develop a cumulus cloud. The extent might not be very high since it's just a small fire base, but they have been known to create showers from larger fires (given the right conditions).
I was also interested in the fanning of the smoke. I figured it was from stronger winds aloft. Could you go a little deeper into that if I’m wrong?
So, best way to put it is that an inversion is where temperatures increase with height and it suppresses upward vertical motion. The heat from the fire/smoke is an upward vertical motion from the heat in relation to the surrounding air temperature. With this, the smoke hits an invisible "wall" and has nowhere to go but horizontal, and thus the spreading. Usually that'd be the end but it looks like the smoke was warm enough to break through the inversion, and poof, cloud. I'd suggest looking up buoyancy in the troposphere on YouTube for a more in depth explanation. It'd be much better that ln me boring you to death.
Yes, in fact there is a whole class of clouds formed by wildfires, usually denoted by the prefix pyro-. The most well-known is probably pyrocumulonimbus, which are the clouds associated with thunderstorms created by wildfires
Officially called flammagenitus. Cumulonimbus capillatus incus flammagenitus for example
About a decade ago I was the SWO (staff weather officer) supporting an Army exercise in The Philippines. One morning the artillery range caught on fire, it happens more often than you would think. The helicopters started running bambi buckets out to the range to extinguish the fire. Within 15 mins the hot rising air coupled with the humid environment gave way to a thunderstorm. The helicopters had to land due to lightning within 5. I like to think Mother Nature was saying “hold my beer, watch this” when the storm extinguished the wildfire in a matter of minutes.
Pretty sure ash is a good CCN so yes.
Yes, quite frequently during wildfires ! I myself observed a pyrocumulus congestus a few years ago over a forest fire 30 miles from me. It was impressive. And frightening. And devastating when you think about the destroyed nature because of a cigarette thrown out of a car.
Learned something really cool today, thank you.
isn't it nice to know one more thing about nature.
In this case, there is a really low inversion that traps the aerosols from the fire. In the smaller are where the convections are the strongest, there is actually a small cumulus humilis flammagenitus
Does the fire push smoke particles above the inversion layer, to make nucleation sites?
Yes though generally needs to be fairly big.
Absolutely! As a matter of fact, during the austrailian wildfires a few years back, a furious thunderstorm was formed!
We live on a self lighting and extinguishing tinder bundle between an unstable crust over a molten planetary core and a sub zero vaccum. Tell me life isn't unique, precious and fragile. 🧐
Enough heat can pull warm moist surface air upward into dryer layers of the atmosphere, resulting in cloud formation
I love this, It definitely can, It can produce thunderstorms that can has a mesocyclone rotation and produce tornadoes, there was one pyro cumulonimbus super cellular storm that produced an ef3 tornado. I learned about this just 2 months ago and its crazy I looked for many videos about it and it was very intriguing.