Studying pyrocumulus

Pyrocumulus on the Jasper Fire
Pyrocumulus on the Jasper Fire, August 25, 2000. Photo by Bill Gabbert

You may be familiar with pyrocumulus (pyroCb) clouds that form over intensely burning vegetation fires. They can be a combination of smoke and condensation. Some firefighters call this “ice capping”.

Chuck Bushey, a Fire Behavior Analyst and former President of the International Association of Wildland Fire, is a member of a small group studying pyroCb led by Mike Fromm of the US Naval Observatory.

Chuck sent me a link to an animation of pyroCb forming over the Silver Fire recently in southern New Mexico, and explained:

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“…this is one recent example of the sort of products our small global pryoCb group watch. The group also examines lots of particulate and atmospheric information (some from ground based instrumentation such as Lidar, as well as from other satellite channels) to make sure it’s a real fire event or something else. There are other events that may look similar from orbit and some of the more remote incidents that this group sees we may be the first observers.

We can sometimes track these major upper atmospheric (stratospheric) events multiple times around the globe mixing with other weather systems. The most global round-trips I have observed has been four in the northern hemisphere.

We can only speculate on what the input of the volatile elemental and organic chemicals and other pyrolyized materials (such as soil and ash) are having on the cold, upper atmosphere and our climate. We also guess that these events may be more frequent now and maybe more intense than in the recent past but we really don’t know because no one was watching and our capabilities were limited.”

Huge smoke plume attacks thunderstorm cell

West Fork Complex fires, June 19, 2013
West Fork Complex fires, June 19, 2013, by Chris Bronson, CGB777

Originally published at 10:09 p.m. MDT, JUne 19, 2013 

The photo above got my attention. It was posted on Twitter and Instagram by Chris Bronson, aka @cgb777.

It’s a very impressive smoke plume. Since he said it was in Colorado I guessed that it was the West Fork Complex in south-central Colorado 14 miles north of Pagosa Springs, which was listed on InciWeb (when it was working – don’t get me started) at 8,000+ acres. So I fired up Google Earth and confirmed that the geography matched. Then I visited the NASA site for viewing GOES images and found the series of photos below that show primarily the southeast corner of Colorado, and also portions of NM, OK, TX, and KS.

West Fork fire plume, 2315 UTC, June 19, 2013

West Fork Fire plume, 0030 UTC, June 20, 2013

West Fork Fire plume, 1:45 UTC, June 20, 2013

West Fork Fire plume,

After this last image at 0200 UTC (8 p.m. MDT) the later images are too dark to see anything.

Chuck Bushey sent me this link to an animated GOES 13 Rapid Scan Operations visible and 3.9 µm shortwave Infrared images for the same two fires and the same period of time. With the IR in the lower frame you can easily tell when the second, more southern, fire gets going.

I thought it was interesting how the smoke plume in the four photographs above moved into space occupied by the large thunderstorm cell and appeared to force it to partially or mostly dissipate. Meteorologists out there can feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m thinking that there were at least two or three factors that caused it to happen.

  1. Warmer air in the plume lowered the relative humidity, reducing the condensation which formed the cloud; (I’m not too sure about this one; traveling over 200 miles, the plume probably cooled close to ambient temperature)
  2. The plume shaded the ground at the base of the thunderstorm cell, turning off its heat engine — less heated air rising = less condensation = less cloud;
  3. And this one I’m not too sure about either. Particulates in the plume served as condensation nuclei in the cloud. Moisture condensed on the particles, which then fell out as rain, dissipating the cloud.
  4. Or, heck, since the sun was setting, THAT turned off the heat engine, causing the thunderstorm cell to break up.
  5. Or all of the above?

It was also interesting how the scattered cumulus clouds on the Colorado/New Mexico state line in the span of 45 minutes formed into a large cumulonimbus cloud, which then seemed to merge or grow into the other one farther north near the smoke plume.

And then to make the photos even more interesting, a new smoke plume popped up in the last two photos between the West Fork Complex and the thunderstorms in the southeast corner of Colorado. As this is written at 10 p.m. Wednesday, this newer plume and fire does not show up on the Rocky Mountain Coordination Center map of current fires.

Lime Gulch Fire causing evacuations southwest of Denver

The Lime Gulch Fire, formerly called Chair Rock, is causing evacuations south of Denver.

(UPDATE at 11:30 a.m. MDT, June 20, 2013)

Map of Lime Gulch Fire
Map of Lime Gulch Fire at 1115 p.m. MDT, June 19, 2013 showing heat detected by a satellite. The location of the squares can be as much as a mile in error. The red squares are the most recent.

On Wednesday the Lime Gulch Fire near Foxton, Colorado grew quickly, throwing out spot fires causing firefighters to have to withdraw for their own safety. Today the size is estimated at 500 acres with no containment.

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Map of Lime Gulch Fire, at 1:49 p...m. MDT, June 19, 2013
Map of Lime Gulch Fire (the red squares), at 1:49 p…m. MDT, June 19, 2013 (click to enlarge)

(The name of this fire was changed from Chair Rock to Lime Gulch.)

(UPDATE at 6:45 p.m. MDT, June 19, 2013)

A tweet from the Rocky Mountain Coordination Center:

Dan Dallas’ IMTeam will assume command at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Radio traffic from the online scanner at about 4 p.m. said the fire is 150 acres and they will transition to a local Type 3 Incident Management Team tonight.

A military C-130 MAFFS air tanker was over the fire at 3:40 p.m. A Single Engine Air Tanker may have dropped on the fire earlier. A helicopter is also dropping water on the fire.

Jefferson County Sheriffs’ office has posted evacuation information HERE.

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Colorado has another fire that is causing evacuations. The Lime Gulch fire is 7 miles southeast of Conifer and 13 miles southwest of Columbine in the southern part of Jefferson County.

The map of the Lime Gulch fire above shows heat detected by a satellite at 1:49 p.m. MDT, June 19, 2013. The locations of the red squares can be as much as a mile in error.

Just before 2 p.m. the Sheriff ordered immediate evacuations for a 3-mile radius around the intersection of Foxton and Platte River roads. Calls went out to 401 phones in the area.

At least one helicopter is on scene dropping water, and other aircraft have been ordered.

SKY9 was streaming live video of the fire at 3:06 p.m. Wednesday, but that could end any time.

Lime Gulch fire at 3:26 pm MDT, June 19, 2013, from SKY9
Lime Gulch fire at 3:26 pm MDT, June 19, 2013, from SKY9

Firefighter suffers cardiac arrest on Big Meadows Fire

Horseshoe Meadow Hotshot medivac
Members of Horseshoe Meadow and Arrowhead Interagency Hotshot Crews carry Luther E. Larkin Sr. to the emergency medical helicopter while Paramedic Kraig Schlueter (center), of Grand County Emergency Medical Services attends to the patient. Photo courtesy Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team A.

A firefighter on the Horseshoe Meadow Hotshot crew working on the Big Meadows Fire in Rocky Mountain National Park northwest of Denver suffered a cardiac arrest June 16 but was successfully resuscitated with CPR and an Automated External Defibrillator.

The incident occurred in the morning as the Horseshoe Meadow Hotshot crew was hiking with the Arrowhead Hotshots to their assignment in a remote area of the Park. Luther E. Larkin, Sr., 51, a  member of the crew which is based on the Sequoia National Forest in California, began having difficulty breathing and experienced chest pains. An EMT with the crews evaluated him and detected no pulse, then started CPR. A paramedic that was on the fireline arrived within 5 minutes, carrying an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). After approximately 10 to 14 minutes with no pulse and applying one “shock” from the AED, Mr. Larkin was resuscitated.

Meanwhile back at the Incident Command Post as well as on the fireline, personnel were being reassigned to manage the incident-within-an-incident. A Flight for Life medivac helicopter was ordered and a helicopter assigned to the fire transported additional personnel to the scene, including two additional paramedics.

Shane Del Grosso’s Type 2 Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team, working closely with Rocky Mountain National Park, had planned carefully for the medical treatment and extraction of firefighters on the fire. They had even swapped helicopters so that they had a National Guard ship with a hoist if that became the most expedient method to obtain treatment for a victim within the “golden hour”.

After packaging the patient, personnel on the two crews, working at an elevation of 9,000 to 10,000 feet, carried him about one-quarter mile to a helispot, arriving about the same time the medivac ship arrived. One hour and 4 minutes after he collapsed on the fireline, they loaded Mr. Larken onto the helicopter which then flew him to a hospital in Denver.

Incident Commander Shane Del Grosso said the planning paid off and the treatment and extraction worked out very well. He said the “prognosis looks very good” for Mr. Larkin, and he is “sitting up in bed and recognizing fellow crew members”.

As they frequently do, the Wildland Firefighter Foundation is providing assistance to Mr. Larkin and his family in several ways, including helping with lodging and other expenses while they are in Denver.

The presence of an AED and the availability of advanced medical care on the fireline was critical to reviving him and obtaining a pulse, the Incident Management Team said in a conference call today.

Lessons learned following the tragic death of firefighter Andrew Palmer in 2008 may have saved this firefighter’s life. It took three hours and twenty minutes after Mr. Palmer was injured by a falling tree to get him from the fireline to the airport in Redding, California where he was pronounced dead. Mr. Palmer died from excessive blood loss.

The Larkin family granted permission for this information to be released and requests that their privacy be respected.

Red Flag Warnings, June 19, 2013

Red Flag Warnings, June 19, 2013

Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches for enhanced wildfire danger have been issued by the National Weather Service for areas in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, California, and New Mexico.

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The Red Flag Warning map above was current as of 9 a.m. MDT on Wednesday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts. For the most current data, visit this NWS site.

Doce Fire — west of Prescott

(UPDATE at 2:20 p.m. MDT, June 19, 2013)

Map of Doce Fire at 11 p.m. MDT, June 18, 2013
Map of Doce Fire at 11 p.m. MDT, June 18, 2013. (click to enlarge)

The map of the Doce Fire above shows the perimeter (in red) at 11 p.m. MDT Tuesday night.

More information is at Facebook and the very unreliable InciWeb.

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(UPDATE at 9:15 a.m. MDT, June 19, 2013)

The Arizona Emergency Information Network (AZEIN) reports that the Doce Fire has burned 7,000 acres and is zero percent contained.

Below is evacuation information from the AZEIN. For the most current evacuation information, check their site.

Evacuated: Granite Basin Homes, Sundown Acres, Old Stage Acres, south half of Mint Creek, and American Ranch.

On notice for potential evacuation: neighborhoods in Williamson Valley

(There is an evacuation center at Yavapai College. Livestock should be taken to the Prescott Rodeo Grounds)

The AZEIN reported at 7:38 a.m. Wednesday:

The fire was active overnight on the northeast corner by the Williamson Valley Corridor and on the southwest corner by Granite Mountain Wilderness. No structures have been lost and no injuries have occurred.

Continue reading “Doce Fire — west of Prescott”