Wildfires Create Their Own Weather | Extreme Weather Documentary

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]A fire large enough doesn't just burn.

[00:00:02]It starts to control the sky above it.

[00:00:05]When a wildfire reaches a certain size, the heat it generates creates its own wind system. Air rushes in from [music] all directions feeding the flames. The fire builds, the wind shift, and suddenly the fire is [music] no longer following the weather.

[00:00:20]The weather is following the fire.

[00:00:23]These fire generated thunderstorms called pyrocumulonimbus clouds can tower 40,000 [music] ft into the atmosphere, higher than most commercial aircraft fly.

[00:00:32]Inside lightning forms, dry lightning.

[00:00:36]No rain to put it out. That lightning strikes the ground miles ahead of the fire starting new fires outflanking everything in their path. And somewhere on the ground, a firefighter looks up at the sky and realizes the rules have changed. The fire had become the storm.