Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Can wildfires enhance instability for thunderstorms?

Recently in my boredom, I thought I would take a peak at the visible satellite loop in northern Minnesota to see if the smoke could still be seen. Looking at the loop a couple times, I did spot the smoke, but there was something else that I noticed as well. It looked like thunderstorms were developing right over where the smoke was. At first, I thought it was a weird coincidence, but after watching the loop a few more times, it looked like the clouds kept billowing and storms kept developing over that same spot. At that point I thought to myself, can the heat from wildfires actually provide extra instability to the atmosphere to help with thunderstorm development? I know I've seen mini tornadoes in the fire of wildfires, but wasn't sure if it went beyond that or not. So, I'm interested in any input from people on their thoughts. Did the fires assist in thunderstorm development, or was this just a mere coincidence. Below are some stills I got of the visible satellite images.





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6 comments:

  1. JonSeptember 13, 2011 at 2:01 AM

    Check this out from NWS Duluth, they have a image of a Pyrocumulous Thunderstorm http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=dlh&storyid=72987&source=0

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  2. DuaneSeptember 13, 2011 at 2:05 AM

    Well look at that...cool stuff!

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  3. randyinchamplinSeptember 13, 2011 at 2:08 AM

    I wonder what that will look like Tues morning

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  4. DuaneSeptember 13, 2011 at 2:19 AM

    Hopefully any rain they did get up there tonight helped things out a little bit.

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  5. andrew.mccawleySeptember 13, 2011 at 11:58 AM

    pyrocumulous, had to google that. but yeah the heat from the fire creates more instability and when the atmosphere is already close to breaking the cap and firing a storm, it just adds more fuel to the fire, pun intended. the smoke in the air also probably helps the condensation for cloud formation. also wonder how dirty the rain is, probably smells weird too.

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  6. DuaneSeptember 14, 2011 at 1:22 AM

    Thanks everyone for the replies. I had never heard of pyrocumulous before either, so there's something new I learned. So many interesting things about the weather, which is why I love it so much.

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