A pyrocumulonimbus event is capable of producing rain, hail, lightning and tornadoes – and spreading fire in the process
More 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.
Mike Flannigan, a professor at Thompson Rivers University who studies wildfires, witnessed what the clouds can do Pyrocumulonimbus clouds form when the heat of an intense wildfire sends smoke high into the air, sometimes as high as the lower stratosphere. When this happens, the pillar of hot, smoky air cools, and a cloud coalesces at its peak.
Tornadoes are also a possibility, though they are rare. During brush fires near Canberra, Australia, in 2003, a twister of flames sped through the area at 30 kilometres an hour and contributed to the destruction of more than 500 properties.cloud causes can make firefighting treacherous, both by ground and by air.
Although B.C. and Alberta have led the country in pyrocumulonimbus formation this year, he said, there have been significant numbers recorded in other provinces and territories. Twenty were in the Northwest Territories, 18 were in Quebec, eight were in the Yukon, six were in Saskatchewan and another six were in Ontario. One storm occurred along the border of B.C. and the Northwest Territories, and another formed between B.C. and Alberta.
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