Wildfires in western Canada and record heat result in ‘fire-breathing’ storms

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Record temperatures and massive wildfires in western Canada have unleashed “fire-breathing” clouds and thousands of lightning bolts in a phenomenon that has baffled meteorologists, according to reports.

Business Insider reports that the majority of strikes through British Columbia were the result of pyrocumulonimbus clouds, which formed when scorching heat and billowing smoke from fires rose into the sky.

Thunder in cumulus clouds produces its own weather, including tornadoes in some cases, which can then lead to new fires in a vicious circle, according to the news outlet.

Dakota Smith, a meteorologist at the Colorado Cooperative Institute for Atmospheric Research, said in a tweet on Twitter that he had observed “the amazing behavior of wildfires in British Columbia.”

He included satellite images from above Lytton earlier this week and added: “The pyrocumulonimbus plumes are incredible and produce huge storms.”

A wildfire burns in the mountains north of Lytton, British Columbia, on July 1, 2021

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA’s Institute for Environment and Sustainability, wrote on Twitter: “I’ve seen a lot of wildfire-related wartime events during the satellite age, and I think this may be the most extreme” I’ve ever seen. “

“This is an actual firestorm, producing *thousands* of lightning strikes and almost countless new fires,” he added.

Another name for “fire-clouds” is cumulonimbus flammagenitus, according to NASA, which also refers to pyrocumulonimbus storms as “fire-breathing clouds dragon.”

Thunderstorms usually form when warm, moist air rises into the sky. When it enters the lowest part of the atmosphere, the air cools and sinks closer to the ground, where it warms up and rises again.

Storm-producing pyrocumulonimbus plumes over Canada. Tweet embed

This convection cycle creates cumulus or thunderclouds — but when the heat and humidity rise from a smoky wildfire, convection creates pyrocumulonimbus clouds, according to the news outlet.

In addition to rain, these clouds often unleash powerful blasts of dry air known as ‘downbursts’, rather than water droplets – embers and smoke scatter across great distances.

According to the report, this is fueling the fires that originally caused the storm.

And if the convective air in the pyrocumulonimbus cloud forms a circular plume, the storm could also spawn a “fire tornado,” Business Insider reports.

Chris Vajasky, a Vaisala meteorologist who tracks lightning strikes worldwide, told SFGATE.com that the North American Lightning Detection Network sensed 71,177 strikes across British Columbia and northwestern Alberta over the course of about 15 hours in recent days.

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