Bushfires are strongly driven by weather: Hot, dry, and windy conditions can combine to create the perfect environment for flames to spread across the landscape.
But sometimes the relationship flips: Fires can generate their own weather systems, which can then dramatically alter the spread and intensity of the blaze.
One of the most striking examples of this phenomenon is the formation of pyrocumulonimbus clouds — towering storm clouds born from fire.
How can a fire make winds and clouds?
Large bushfires release enormous amounts of energy — sometimes comparable to that emitted from a nuclear bomb. This heats the air in the vicinity of the fire, causing it to rise rapidly in a powerful, buoyant, fire-driven updraft.
Surrounding air rushes in at ground level to replace the rising hot air, feeding the fire with oxygen like a bellows and sometimes accelerating its spread. In extreme cases, the fire and its induced winds can become a self-sustaining system, feeding and growing from the weather it creates.
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