On August 11, 2014 a fire in northern California produced a pyroCb detected by GOES-15 0.63 µm visible channel and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (above; click image to play animation) around 21:15 UTC located near 41º North and 123º West rapidly drifting northwest in the direction as the surrounding convection. On the shortwave IR images (right panel), the red […]
The South Fork fire complex had been burning since being started by lightning on 31 July 2014 (InciWeb), and a pyroCb was seen to develop late in the day on 09 August 2014. A 4-panel comparison of GOES-15 (GOES-West) and GOES-13 (GOES-East) 0.63 µm visible channel and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (above; click […]
On July 30, 2014, a lightning strike started the Oregon Gulch Fire, part of the Beaver Complex of fires, becoming an extremely active fire due to the very dry conditions in this part of the country. As these fires grew, another thunderstorm system passed through northern California on August 1, 2014 with over 1,000 lightning […]
On 07 June 2014, McIDAS images of 1-km resolution GOES-15 0.63 µm visible channel and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (above; click image to play animation) showed that the Two Bulls Fire just west of Bend, Oregon (station identifier KBDN) began to burn an area large enough to be detected by satellite around 20:00 […]
As the Rim Fire continues to burn near Yosemite National Park in California on August 21st, 2013, another pyrocumulonimbus has spawned from the complex. Looking at the GOES-15 visible imagery (above, left; click image to play animation), a large plume of cloud can be seen erupting from the fire, centered approximately at 38N 120W, at about 22 UTC. […]
A PyroCB event occurred in Montana on August 19, 2013, as seen with GOES-14 imagery. A two-panel comparison (above; click image to play animation) shows the visible imagery (top panel) as well as the shortwave infrared imagery (bottom panel). Hot spots are already apparent in Wyoming, and around 20:45 UTC, a hot spot flares up […]
