But fires that are “plume-dominated” - like those creating and sustaining their own weather systems - are more volatile. “If the wind is blowing from the southwest, we know the fire will be travelling to the northeast,” Mr. When wildfires are driven by wind, they usually move in a predictable direction. These storms create “a very dangerous situation for our firefighters on the ground,” said Edwin Zuniga, a public information officer for Cal Fire, California’s firefighting agency. Naval Research Laboratory, called Dixie “the most prolific producer of pyroCbs” in the United States this summer. David Peterson, a meteorologist who tracks fire-driven thunderstorms at the U.S. Over its lifespan, the Dixie fire generated eight firestorms and displayed other extreme behaviors, including at least one fire whirl, a sort of mini-tornado. Using high-resolution radar data, which picked up ash particles from smoke plumes and water droplets from clouds, The New York Times reconstructed a 3-D model of the Dixie fire’s first massive thunderclouds. Now, for the first time, you can see one of these firestorms up close.
Several became so large and intense that they powered their own weather systems, spawning towering storm clouds, lightning and even some “fire whirls,” spinning vortices of flames. Given a spark, new fires grew explosively. The storm - an early sign of Dixie’s devastating potential - was part of a broader outbreak of extreme fire behavior across the West this summer.įrom California to Canada, the landscape was primed to burn: A severe drought and high summer temperatures magnified by climate change left vegetation tinder-dry, with low humidity and strong winds further amplifying the risk. By Nadja Popovich, Noah Pisner, Nicholas Bartzokas, Evan Grothjan, Daniel Mangosing, Karthik Patanjali and Scott Reinhardĭays after California’s Dixie fire ignited in mid-July, towering storm clouds burst from the flames, generating lightning and wild winds that pushed the fire “in every direction,” according to firefighters battling the blaze.
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