British Columbia Wildfire Generates Pyrocumulonimbus Cloud -- Storyful

A wildfire in southern British Columbia produced a brief pyrocumulonimbus cloud on the night of August 16, with imagery of the event shared by the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA). The Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) issued an evacuation alert for several areas in southern British Columbia, as a wildfire burned near Lower East Adams Lake and east of the Adams River on Wednesday, August 16. Wildfire crews in British Columbia expected an incoming weather system with strong winds and dry lightning by Thursday, August 17, according to local news reports. CIRA published this footage recorded by the GOES-18 satellite to X (formerly Twitter), showcasing the pyrocumulonimbus cloud’s formation. Pyrocumulonimbus clouds are thunder clouds created by intense heat from the Earth’s surface, according to the Royal Meteorological Society.