In Canada and Alaska, 2015 has been the year for wildfires. As of 08 July, the number of acres burned in Alaska has been the second highest in recorded history. In Canada the acres burned already exceeds the annual 10-year average for an entire year (image below). The government has deployed 1,000 military personnel to […]
On 20 June according to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center the Blair Fire started in the interior of Alaska (south of Fairbanks) at 64.3º N 147.3º W. On 24 June at 20:15 UTC a pyroCb formed from this fire. GOES-15 detected the smoke plume and pyroCb cloud, as well as the fire hot spot. Starting at […]
On 22 June and 23 June 2015 there were multiple fires in Alaska that produced pyroCb. GOES-15 detected the smoke plumes and pyroCb clouds, as well as the fire hot spots. Starting at 21:00 UTC on 22 June, the animation below shows visible (.63 μm) on the left and shortwave IR (3.9 μm) on the right […]
On 20 June 2015 there was a possibility that the Michigan Creek fire at 64.1º N 144.4º W in southern Alaska produced a pyroCb; after further analysis it was determined that this fire did indeed produce a pyroCb. GOES-15 (GOES-West) detected the smoke plume and pyroCb cloud, but unfortunately it was too cloudy for the shortwave IR […]
On 17 June 2015 the Lake Fire fire started east of San Bernardino, California (34.1º N 117.3º W). On 18 June, the large smoke plume could be seen spreading eastward on true-color images from Terra/Aqua MODIS and Suomi NPP VIIRS (above). At 15:30 UTC on 18 June it was estimated that 10,000 acres had burned […]
There have been a lot of fires within the past month in western and northwestern Canada. These fires have produced some pyroCbs that have been documented in this blog, but also these fires produce a lot of smoke. This smoke has been moving into the upper Midwest down to the East Coast from a northwest […]
