GOES-13 Visible and Shortwave IR Images (Click to Play Animation)
The West Fork Fire continued to burn on June 26, 2013 in South Central Colorado. This fire had its origins three weeks earlier on June 5, 2013. GOES-13 0.63 micrometer visible imagery (above, left panel; click image to play) show a smoke plume erupting from the mountain fire during the early afternoon hours of the 26th. After the smoke plume is evident, a large pyrocumulonimbus forms over the hotspot and drifts south-southeastward along the mean flow. Also, GOES-13 3.9 micrometer shortwave IR imagery (above, right panel; click image to play) showed a well defined hot spot before the formation and growth of the pyrocumulonimbus cloud.
Corresponding GOES-13 10.7 micrometer longwave IR imagery (below; click image to play) showed the development of a pyrocumulonimbus cloud during the late afternoon hours of June 26, 2013. This animation showed cloud tops reaching -60 degrees Celsius during the peak of the pyrocumulonimbus growth.
GOES-13 Longwave IR Images (Click to Play Animation)