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SAN JOSE (NEXSTAR) – Be grateful if your morning weather forecast never called for pyrocumulonimbus clouds. What is a pyrocumulonimbus cloud? For those of you who are rusty on your Ancient Greek, pyro refers to fire, and pyrocumulonimbus clouds are, in fact, cloud formations created by forest fires.
Pyrocumulus clouds are similar to the cumulus clouds that humans are used to. They arise when hot air pushes moisture up from plants, soil and air, where it cools and condenses. The centers of these “pyro clouds” have strongly rising air.
It’s fairly common, and it’s a warning sign that firefighters on the ground could face unpredictable and dangerous conditions from the drafts of air toward the center of the fire. One that rose from the Creek Fire in California last week could be the largest ever recorded on US soil, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Smoke Cyclone:” California Fire creates disturbing satellite images
Several images of the dark, ominous formation were captured by passengers and posted on social media.
Today I flew from San Jose to Las Vegas with SWA and looked out my window and saw this cloud. I found out that it is a cumulonimbus flammagenitus cloud, also known as a pyrocumulonimbus cloud, a type of cloud that forms over a heat source such as wildfire #CreekFire pic.twitter.com/HCqyWiHpNx
– Thalia Dockery (@SweetBrown_Shug) September 6, 2020
The formations can be so damaging that NASA once called them the “fire-breathing cloud kite”.
“PyroCb storms send their smoke like a chimney into the earth’s stratosphere, with persistent negative effects,” NASA explained in an overview of the phenomenon.
In some cases, the pyro clouds can reach 30,000 feet and create lightning bolts. There is evidence that pyrocumulus lightning bolts may have started new flames during the devastating firestorm in Australia in 2009 known as Black Friday.
NWS: West coast won’t see a clear sky for a while
Similar to how cumulonimbus clouds create tornadoes, these pyro clouds can create fire-induced eddies of ash, smoke, and often flames that can be destructive.
Additional destruction is the last thing California needs right now. More than three million hectares have already been burned this year. The peak of the state’s traditional fire season is yet to come.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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