PyroCb in Ontario, Canada

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, center) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom) images, with hourly plots of surface reports [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, center) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm, bottom) images, with hourly plots of surface reports [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-16 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (above) showed that Canadian wildfires burning along the Manitoba/Ontario border produced a pyroCb around 1930 UTC on 22 May 2018.

As the pyroCb moved southeastward over western Ontario, the coldest GOES-16 cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were around -55ºC (orange enhancement), which corresponded to altitudes around 10.3 to 10.8 km according the rawinsonde data from Pickle Lake, Ontario (below).

Rawinsonde data profiles from Pickle Lake, Ontario [click to enlarge]

Rawinsonde data profiles from Pickle Lake, Ontario [click to enlarge]

In a comparison of 1-km resolution NOAA-19 Visible (0.63 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.7 µm) and Infrared Window (10.8 µm) images at 2210 UTC (below), the minimum cloud-top infrared brightness temperature was -58.1ºC (darker orange enhancement), which roughly corresponded to altitudes of 10.6 to 11.0 km (just below the tropopause) on the Pickle Lake soundings.

NOAA-19 Visible (0.63 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.7 µm) and Infrared Window (10.8 µm) images [click to enlarge]

NOAA-19 Visible (0.63 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.7 µm) and Infrared Window (10.8 µm) images [click to enlarge]

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