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Environment and energy

Environment and energy

How can wildfires trigger thunderstorms?

21 Jan 2021 James Dacey

Spectacular fire-driven storm clouds can form when extreme wildfires occur in certain conditions.  Scientists are only beginning to understand this phenomenon – known as pyrocumulonimbus – and its implications for the global climate system. Listen to this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast to hear the full interview with David Peterson – a meteorologist at the US Naval Research Laboratory, in Monterey, California.

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