Jasper Fire Worsened by Pyrocumulonimbus Cloud

[Pelican Press 0]

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Jasper ***** Worsened by Pyrocumulonimbus Cloud

Officials said on Thursday they feared as much as half the town of Jasper, Alberta, had been destroyed by wildfires so intense they generated their own weather.

“It’s a sad day here because Jasper is such a gorgeous place,” said Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland ***** at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, on Thursday.

The town is the gateway to Jasper National Park, a crown jewel of the ********* parks system. At least 25,000 residents and tourists were evacuated from their homes before firefighters and emergency personnel also had to flee toxic smoke. The mayor called the destruction “almost beyond comprehension.”

That ***** was worsened by a pyrocumulonimbus, or a *****-generated thunderstorm, according to Dr. Flannigan.

“They’re by far the most intense fires in the world,” he said.

What are these storms?

Pyrocumulonimbus storms are huge, smoke-filled thunderstorms generated when the intense heat from wildfires combines with atmospheric conditions ripe for storm formation.

While

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, they can create other types of weather like hail, strong winds, lightning and tornadoes. Tornado-like winds were reported near the

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, which is currently burning in California.

These storms can also create smoke plumes that can surpass the cruising altitude of a commercial aircraft. They act like a giant chimney: Smoke is pulled up from the wildfire and as the air escapes, more air moves quickly in at the ground level, feeding the ***** more oxygen before funneling up and away.

This feedback loop can push out so many smoke particles

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.

In the 2019-20 ****** Summer ***** season in Australia, for example, 38 such storms, known as pyroCbs, were observed. They injected enough smoke into the atmosphere that scientists likened it to a nuclear winter.

Wildfires that are exacerbated by these types of storms can become nearly impossible to put out. They’re also more hazardous for firefighters, creating more extreme wind conditions and darkening skies.

“They tried to put helicopters on it,” said Dr. Flannigan of the wildfires that fueled at least two of these storms this week near Jasper. “They couldn’t stop it, which is unfortunate because it led to a good chunk of the town burning down.”

Why are *****-generated storms happening more often?

Unlike the study of other extreme weather events like heat waves and hurricanes, the study of these storms is

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.

Because data only dates back to 2013, it’s difficult to determine a trend, said David Peterson, a meteorologist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, Calif.

“There’s been an increasing number of large and intense wildfires in North America in recent years that likely would suggest there would be more pyroCbs,” Dr. Peterson said. “But we still don’t know enough.”

But over the last decade, the number of these storms has grown.

In 2017, four pyroCb storms in British Columbia created a volcanic-scale smoke plume that traveled around the globe, lasting more than six months. Then, the ****** Summer in Australia sent a smoke plume up that lasted more than year. In 2021, 100 pyroCb storms were recorded worldwide, but 2023 shattered that record with 169.

Western Canada seems to be a hot spot. The country’s 2023 ***** season spawned 142 of these storms, almost tripling its previous record of 50 in 2021.

While research

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these types of storms to climate change,

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that as climate change increases how often extreme wildfires happen, they could also become more frequent.

“In a general sense, if you have more fires you’ll have more pyroCbs because there are more opportunities to have them sink up, but it depends on atmospheric conditions, too,” Dr. Peterson said. “An intense wildfire definitely increases the odds.”

More than 50 pyroCbs have been observed in western North America so far this year, which already puts 2024 in the top three years in the 12-year-old record.

What do they look like?

You can see a 3-D model of this kind of *****-generated thunderstorm for yourself.

In 2021, a team of journalists at The Times recreated the Dixie *****, the largest blaze in California’s history and the most expensive to ****** in the entire ******* States. It generated eight firestorms, including a mini-tornado known as a ***** whirl.

When will we know more?

In October, Dr. Peterson and his partners will begin a five-year, NASA-funded

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these wildfires could have on our climate.

“The big open question right now is what is the role of pyroCbs in a warming climate system?” Dr. Peterson said. “What are the effects of pushing smoke up extremely high into the stratosphere, especially when smoke that high persists for a year?”

The study will use two NASA aircraft: one that can fly up to 70,000 feet above the storm, requiring the pilot to wear a spacesuit, and a second that can fly through the storm’s upper clouds. The aircraft will collect data in the summers of 2026 and 2027.

In the meantime, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is also working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies to develop a more sophisticated warning system. The science is complex because it merges wildfire science with thunderstorm meteorology.

“We need to develop a warning capability for fires that are more likely to generate pyroCbs because it means something different if you’re fighting it, evacuating people, and predicting where the smoke is going,” Dr. Peterson said. “Right now we’re in catch-up mode.”

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#Jasper #***** #Worsened #Pyrocumulonimbus #Cloud

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