‘Fire clouds’ created by intense heat of SoCal wildfires

LAS VEGAS ( KLAS ) — Southern California’s fires this week have been so intense they are creating their own weather systems, according to meteorologists. Now NASA has released satellite photos showing the dramatic “fire clouds” from above.

The same fires that are sending smoke toward Las Vegas are producing “pyrocumulus” clouds — tall, billowing clouds that typically have a column of smoke at their base and powerful updrafts that channel large amounts of smoke high into the atmosphere, according to NASA.

“Puffy, white convective clouds popped up in the hills around Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego throughout the afternoon of September 9, 2024,” NASA said. “Three of them were different than the others, with their convection fueled, in part, by surface heat associated with intense wildland fires .”

NASA’s OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 captured images of a pyrocumulus rising from the Line fire in Southern California on Thursday.

Active fires are highlighted in the photos in red.

“Later in the day, the pyrocumulus matured into a full-fledged thunderstorm, or pyrocumulonimbus, that generated rain, strong wind gusts, lightning, and even hail, according to KCAL News. On September 7, the National Weather Service’s San Diego office noted that a similar cloud from the Line fire had generated more than 3,700 strikes,” according to NASA.

“Images from other satellites show smoke spiraling upward and spreading outward over the course of the day. Photographs from observers on the ground offered dramatic views of the towering smoky feature as well,” NASA said.

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