The Bootleg fire in Oregon, which has been burning since July 6, has burnt more than 606 square miles - an area larger than Los Angeles. The fire has now become so intense that it has created its own weather.
A satellite image posted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed the tremendous amount of smoke that the fire generated.
Fire officials noted that the Bootleg fire has shown “aggressive surface spread with pyrocumulus development.” Pyrocumulous clouds or flammagenitus clouds are formed by intense heating of the air from the surface due to volcanic eruptions or forest fires. The intense heat causes the air mass to rise, then moistures to condense on ash particles essentially becoming their own thunderstorms, complete with lightning and strong gusts of wind.
The fire is "so large and generating so much energy and extreme heat that it's changing the weather," Marcus Kauffman said to CNN. "Normally, the weather predicts what the fire will do. In this case, the fire is predicting what the weather will do."
#fire #wildfire #smoke #cloud #PyrocumulousCloud #FlammagenitusCloud #ForestFire #BootlegFire #weather