Like volcanic eruptions, some fires grow large enough to make their own weather with the heat being released acting like convection. Witness this neat time lapse in HD showing the “Station” fire in the Angeles National Forest.
This video was made by photographer Brandon Riza on August 30th, 2009. It is quite well done and quite visually stunning. The station fire is also visible from space, and shows up in the AIRS satellite image shown below from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
It is also visible by conventional satellite imagery.
For those interested, here is more information about pyrocumulus clouds.
h/t to “jeez” for the time lapse video
pyrocumulus—A pyrocumulus or fire cloud is a dense cumuliform cloud associated with fire or volcanic activity.
A pyrocumulus cloud is produced by the intense heating of the air from the surface. The intense heat induces convection which causes the air mass to rise to a point of stability, usually in the presence of moisture. Phenomena such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and occasionally industrial activities can induce formation of this cloud. The detonation of a nuclear weapon in the atmosphere will also produce a pyrocumulus in the form of a mushroom cloud which is made by the same mechanism. The presence of a low level jet stream can enhance its formation. Condensation of ambient moisture (moisture already present in the atmosphere) as well as moisture evaporated from burnt vegetation or volcanic outgassing occurs readily on particles of ash.
A pyrocumulus cloud from the August 2009 Station fire in southern California
Pyrocumulus cloud viewed from above
Pyrocumuli contain severe turbulence which also results in strong gusts at the surface which can exacerbate a large conflagration. A large pyrocumulus, particularly one associated with a volcanic eruption, may also produce lightning. This is a process not fully understood as of yet, but is probably in some way associated with charge separation induced by severe turbulence, and perhaps, by the nature of the particles of ash in the cloud. Large pyrocumuli can contain temperatures well below freezing, and the electrostatic properties of any ice that forms may also play a role. A pyrocumulus which produces lightning is actually a type of cumulonimbus, a thundercloud and is called pyrocumulonimbus.
With regards to prevention:
As mentioned, the technology does exist to detect and manage such things, but the overhead is huge. It’s a particularly irksome project for those in control of the budget which funds such projects. The more effective the project, the less need for such a project (irony: if there are no forest fires, why do we need a forest fire prevention system?)
Highly visible and political projects get priority over any other budgetary consideration (e.g. welfare systems, educational systems, pet projects). The less effective these projects are, the more money they consume – that money takes away from very necessary systems, and even exceeds the available funds.
The result will be a knee-jerk reaction to put a fire prevention scheme in place with a rather large budget that the state cannot afford. In several months, when people have forgotten about this tragedy, the funding will gradually be reduced and filtered towards the existing status quo projects as previously mentioned. Because, why do you need to fund a forest fire prevention system when there are people out of work, right?
Additional irony is that any such system is always never 100% effective – there *will* be another fire, and now we have a whole department to blame. That department then becomes highly politicized (which, by definition, consumes even more funding) into a CYA structure, reducing the funding for the people, equipment and procedures which actually do the job of detecting and preventing fires.
Further to my previous post, maybe O/T and shamelessly stolen from http://www.grouchyoldcripple.com/archives/006998.html (Note, has some NSFW material). This is how the funding goes for anything useful, and beneficial to the people:
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Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of A desert. Congress said, “someone may steal from it at night..” So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job..
Then Congress said, “How does the watchman do his job without
instruction?” So they created a planning department and hired two
people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time
studies.
Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing
The tasks correctly?” So they created a Quality Control department and
hired two people. One to do the studies and one to write the reports.
Then Congress said, “How are these people going to get paid?” So
They created the following positions, a time keeper, and a payroll officer,
Then hired two people.
Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these
people?” So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.
Then Congress said, “We have had this command in operation for one
Year and we are $18,000 over budget, we must cutback overall cost.”
So they laid off the night watchman.
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“Steve S. (07:33:22) :
A fleet of these would reduce wildfires to manageble levels.”
I live in the Sacramento area, and one of the 747’s is based here at McClellan field. They were on the news this morning warming it up. It was fully outfitted with full tanks getting ready to take off to the fire.
Too bad they couldn’t get it down there earlier.
Paul
From my experience:
I do live in a fire-prone area in SoCal. My community is located in the middle of a National Forest. The fire authorities and insurance company requires (otherwise we will be fined) to clear the brush around our properties to 30 ft.
However, if we do that, the forestry department (greens) will fine us because this is supposed to be undisturbed wilderness and you should not even move a leaf. After all, clearing the brush might interrupt the mating dance of the slightly spotted dung moskito or something like that.
One of the considerations that worry me about the DC-10 and 747 super tankers is FOD damage to the jet engines when flying in a fire environment.
A couple years ago there was a B-17 out here at RMR airport (then called Jeffco). It was the “sentimental journey”. During the discussion someone asked what the history of the airframe was and they mentioned it has served in a fire fighting roll but never in combat, then they pointed to the leading edges of the wings to draw everyone’s attention to the dozens of small dings on the leading edges.
Those dings were due to airborne cinder impacts when flying through the air column over the fires. Rather large cinders get carried aloft by the updrafts and at air speeds over 100 mph made some very evident impact dings on the leading edge.
I am not sure the jet engines in the super tankers would like a steady diet of that sort of fire debris, and if they did not fail outright due to an impact the service expenses to keep the engines healthy would be significant.
The old prop and turbo-prop aircraft still have their place in fire fighting if someone would just fund a proper refit program and select a reliable airframe like the C-130 to do the job.
In really rough country the ability to get down in the weeds with the slower planes can sometimes be very useful. That of course is why they also fly the smaller airdrop planes which are about the size of a crop dusting aircraft for close in work or spot fire control.
Larry
That is where creative design of the home comes in. Build a really large patio on the most exposed (usually down hill side) and set up your driveway so that it is a circular drive that goes all the way around the house.
Then you put in a small pond (the fire fighters will see this as a fire engine magnet and draft water from your pond). Make sure the drive is big enough that they can easily turn their big engines around and you can turn your home into the one they choose to defend when they have to make tough choices about where to send their crews.
As mentioned above, sidewalks and low rock walls also make good defensible lines for fire fighters to fall back to if they have a blow up and have to go to a defensive position.
I think a class action suit needs to be filed by someone that the regulations and laws are inconsistent and it is physically impossible for the home owner to be in compliance with both sets of rules.
Larry
This from the official web page for the Angeles National Forest:
» Fuels Reduction — Sunland area
The Los Angeles River Ranger District (LARRD) of the Angeles National Forest (ANF) is conducting an environmental analysis under the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to evaluate a fuels reduction project north of the City of Sunland, in the ANF. We are soliciting public input of the issues to be addressed in the environmental analysis. Initiation of this fuels reduction project is proposed to begin in FY2011 and involves vegetation treatments on 500 acres.
Comments should be submitted in writing and will be accepted until September 29, 2009. Issues and concerns should be addressed to:
Mike McIntyre, District Ranger
Los Angeles River Ranger District
12371 N Little Tujunga Canyon Road
San Fernando, CA 91342
Comments may also be submitted via FAX to (818) 8896-6727 or electronically to mmcintyre@fs.fed.us
Picture of the stone wall I built in front of my house. I’ve since cleared back the brush in front of the wall extensively.
http://www.eatonbuilding.com/g2/main.php?g2_itemId=869
Wow !! They can get to it in 2011; almost as soon as I can get a hernia operation under Obamacare.
Yes the President said that private companies can compete with government monopolies; citing how UPS and FedEx successfully compet with the US government run Post Office; so that is the standard to compoare your health care program with.
So that’s another whole fire season, till they get their stuff in gear.
From the San Gabriel paper two days ago:
“”The fire has burned much of Big Tujunga Canyon Road in the mountains, and the canyon opens into the Sunland neighborhood.”
Perhap the fuel reduction has been accomplished for the 500 acres…as it has with about 145,000 additional acres…for the next 15 years or so.
British Columbia in western Canada has suffered through a very volatile forest fire season, especially in the Okanagan Valley. Government forestry policy has allowed the undergrowth to build up, creating the perfect conditions for forest fires. Some tree species need a fire to reproduced. So I figure nature will take care of that need, along with clearing the undergrowth despite human intervention.
segraves (10:57:14) – I can do that environmental assessment. By burning twenty reams of paper on the 500 acres rather than writing them full of environmental jargon, and just burning off the damn weeds instead of studying them.
Look – negative feedback!
More CO2 results in more growth.
More growth results in more fire.
More fire results in more smoke.
More smoke results in cooling.
Just to correct the date, The Canberra fires were January 2003 and behind my house is Mt Stromlo observatory. And this is what it looked like after the fire went through http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Is-is1FTlMBE7M:http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200801/r217437_848499.jpg
Imagine this happening to Mt Palomar ?
Keith Minto (20:13:38) :
Much of Mt Palomar burned in the 2003 fire– the name of which I forget– although I can’t tell you exactly how much of the mountain was burned. I remember going up to a high point in in my community perhaps 15 miles to the north east and watching the mountain burn. Luckily the observatory, which I had visted previous to the fires, was not impacted. 2003 was, if I recall correctly, the most destructive fire year in Southern California history.
NASA photo of the Southern California fires of late October, 2003:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=12373&oldid=11799
So we have pyro-cumulus.
Can I suggest that the eruption of Mt. Tambora 1815 was a pyro-tornado 27 miles high (sea-level 12ft above high tide 25 miles away, what was the central pressure??, good description in wiki).
Can I also suggest that the 100s miles of lava flows seen in flood basalt events would have set off a pyro-hurricane of Red Spot scale.
Hollywood at its most extravagant could not do justice to the energies unleashed in these events.
A car accident in Pallas Verdes caused a new fire, but being near the shore, the super scooper planes were able to douse it rather quickly with rapid turnarounds between scoops.
There are people who have tried to link AGW/CC to Wildfire/Bushfire and Firestorm events, in order to batter us with Fear, Control and Taxes. This analysis published by ‘The Age’ of Melbourne suggests they should not be connected:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/anatomy-of-a-firestorm-20090225-8hvi.html
It seems to me that if people live in bush areas they should be protected by a clear area around the habitation and that the powers-that-be should do proper fuel-reduction burns too.