Monthly Archives: July 2015

Rocky Fire in California

On 31 July there was a pyroCb that formed in California from the Rocky Fire (40.7 N 123.5 W). According to the Current Fire Information, this fire started on 29 July at 3:29 PM. As of 4 August the fire has burned 65,000 acres. GOES-15 detected the smoke plume and pyroCb cloud, as well as the fire hot spot. Starting […]

Stouts Fire in Oregon

GOES-15 (GOES-West) 0.63 µm visible channel and 3.9 µm shortwave IR channel images (above; click to play animation; also available as an MP4 movie file) showed that the Stouts Fire (InciWeb | Wildfire Today) began to rapidly intensify in southwestern Oregon around 2030 UTC (1:30 pm local time) on 30 July 2015. GOES-15 10.7 µm […]

PyroCb in Russia

On 29 July there was a possibility of a pyroCb forming just east of Lake Baikal in Russia. From Himwari-8 images it was confirmed that a pyroCb formed around 53 N 109 E. Himawari-8 detected the smoke plume and clouds around the fires, as well as the fire hot spots. Starting at 07:00 UTC on 29 […]

Wildfire Smoke over Asia

Note: even though this large-scale smoke event was not pyroCb-related, we feel that it is important enough to document in terms of the long-range transport of biomass burning smoke and the potential implications on weather and climate far from the fire source regions. Himawari-8 shows the smoke over the northeastern part of Asia. The animation […]

Wildfire smoke: from Alaska to Norway, via the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans

Note: even though this large-scale smoke event was not pyroCb-related, we feel that it is important enough to document in terms of the long-range transport of biomass burning smoke and the potential implications on weather and climate far from the fire source regions. EUMETSAT Meteosat-10 High Resolution Visible (0.8 µm) images (above; click to play […]

Possible PyroCb in Southeast Russia

On 12 July there was a possibility for pyroCb development in southeast Russia. By using satellite imagery from the new Japanese satellite Himawari-8 it was confirmed that these clouds formed near the fires but were not technically pyroCb. Himawari-8 detected the smoke plume and clouds around the fires, as well as the fire hot spots. Starting […]