How a Wildfire Builds a Cloud That Makes Its Own Lightning

Intense fires do not just send smoke up; they can build weather. NASA describes pyrocumulonimbus clouds — pyroCbs — as the product of a fire hot enough to funnel a chimney of smoke higher than most clouds formed by ordinary weather patterns.

Once up there, these clouds produce lightning and rain, and the powerful winds they generate can whip the flames below into a fury. The largest pyroCbs push smoke 30,000 to 50,000 feet (10 to 15 kilometres) above the surface — as high as commercial jets cruise.