Author Archives: Scott Bachmeier

Thompson Ridge Fire in New Mexico

The Thompson Ridge Fire (InciWeb) began burning on 31 May 2013 in northern New Mexico, just west of Los Alamos (station identifier KLAM). Five days later on 04 June, GOES-15 (GOES-West) and GOES-14 (GOES-East) 0.63 µm visible channel images (above; click image to play animation) showed the development of pyrocumulus near the source of the […]

10-11 May 2013 event in Lake Baikal region

Another possible pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) event occurred in the Lake Baikal region of eastern Russia during the 10-11 May 2013 period. MTSAT-2 visible channel images (above; click image to play animation) showed evidence of pyroCb cloud blow-ups, and MTSAT-2 shortwave IR images (below; click image to play animation) revealed clusters of fire activity “hot spots” (dark […]

First Northern Hemisphere PyroCumulonimbus of 2013?

Mike Fromm (NRL) alerted us to what could be the first Northern Hemisphere PyroCumulonimbus event of 2013, in the Chita region of Russia southeast of Lake Baikal (along the Russia/Mongolia border). McIDAS images of MTSAT-2 0.68 µm visible channel data (above; click image to play animation) showed the development of the pyroCb at the center […]