Pyrocumulus Clouds

[azskyman]

The fires south of Payson, Arizona, have been producing some dramatic and magnificent pyrocumulus clouds each afternoon.

I'm grabbing the camera and taking it with me tomorrow in case I get a chance to photograph it at its peak. Around 4 pm today it had pumped the heat and smoke to great heights and the anvil had spread north-northeast.

They are as dramatic as any thunderstorm photos only from our perspective here in north Phoenix you can clearly see the smoke from the fires feeding the cloud building activity.

Quite a sight for a midwesterner.

[Aquawind]

Those should be some great pics.. Friday we had some of the usual daily storms. I looked outside and saw some wicked cloud action..ended up being a big fire and plume billowing up into the cloud deck created by the storms.. I saw the black tower and was thinking/hopeing wall cloud..looked pretty dramatic with all the other Towering CU and Nimbus around...

I assume it's a dirty rain that falls from those storms..

[azsnowman]

Indeed, the pyrocumulus build ups over a fire are an AWESOME sight yet, a scary one for those of us in the mountains......they bring back some BAD memories.

I too, saw the PC'S over the Willow Fire yesterday, as Michelle and I were out chasing "smokes"....lightning strikes on the West Side of the Reservation. The Willow Fire is now at 14,000 acres with 10% containment, a 0600 briefing will update the fires direction of travel etc.

Dennis

[Aslkahuna]

on July 14th, we had an interesting experience while videotaping the fire along the San Pedro river. The smoke plume was actually entraining into an approaching thunderstorm. The inflow into the convective plume of the fire as well as the approaching thunderstorm made for an impressive fire run with flames reaching over the tops of mature cottonwoods and even some fire whirls. The thunderstorm later became HP severe and stopped the fire in its path with high outflow winds and very heavy rain and large hail. From the house, it also gave us a good light show.

Steve

[azskyman]

While I did take a photo today, it was not nearly so impressive. There was an upper level wind shear that pushed the plume away from my view. I still posted it on my website...just click www below.

I'll try again tomorrow if the fire is still as active. I'd rather have it contained and get no photo than to have another chance for a great pic.

[pawlee]

excellent pic steve! you need to give yourself more credit. so you have a site now, i don't believe it! congratulations!