France Records Its First Pyrocumulonimbus Cloud Amid Burning Fires

Firefighters in France are facing an unprecedented phenomenon in the region: clouds of fire. It is a sign of the power of flames burning—and how climate change affects visible problems.

A heatwave has swept through France and Spain, shipping hundreds of thousands are fleeing. Firefighters on the front line are facing what a spokesman for the French firefighters union said he told AFP so-called “unworkable”—in other words, “a natural force beyond our control.”

As evidence of how wildfires have become in France, look no further than the skies where the flames sometimes create their own weather. In order to create a cloud of fire—what meteorologists call a pyrocumulonimbus or cumulonimbus flammagenitus, which sounds like iron—the first thing you need is heat, where fire has a shovel.

But the key point is the dry conditions near the ground and the cooler, wetter areas higher in the atmosphere. As the hot smoke rises miles above the flames and into the cooler atmosphere, water vapor surrounds the ash particles to form water droplets. (Yes, water vapor and water droplets are two different things.) As the air continues to rise, those water droplets eventually turn into ice.

At this time, smoke and water droplets have formed a cloud, but unfortunately one that cannot provide as much relief as rain. In fact, these high fire clouds can produce lightning that can start large fires and create powerful droplets that reach the ground to rekindle the fire. At worst, pyrocumulonimbus clouds can cause tornadoes.

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds it is listed in the US, Canada, and Australia, among a few other territories. But until now, there were no fire clouds recorded in France. Although the country is no stranger to wildfires, the scale and severity of this summer’s fires are far from normal.

Last week was the most destructive week in France in the last 20 years, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. It doubled the previous record for that time, which is consistent with satellite accuracy. This isn’t just a bad week. More than 220,000 acres have burned across the country, more than seven times a year. That’s 61,000 acres higher than the previous annual record.

If that sounds like a familiar approach, well, unfortunately it is. Burning fossil fuels has warmed the planet, making wildfires more common and destructive around the world. A Scholarship for 2024 found the number of catastrophic fires worldwide to double from 2003 to 2023. Six of the seven worst years have occurred since 2016.

After a slight recovery over the weekend when temperatures dropped, they are expected to return to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) in France and 108 degrees Fahrenheit in Spain later this week. This means that firefighters must contend with extremely dangerous weather conditions – including the possibility of clouds created by the fire itself.