Towering fire-fueled thunderclouds can spew as many aerosols as volcanic eruptions
As warming worsens wildfires, it may create conditions ripe for stronger pyrocumulonimbus clouds
![big cloud of smoke hovering over the top of the hill tops](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/121120_cg_wildfire-thunderstorm_feat.jpg?fit=1030%2C580&ssl=1)
Smoke from intense wildfires burning in southeastern Australia’s Orroral Valley on January 31, 2020, generate a massive, stratosphere-piercing pyrocumulonimbus, or pyroCb, cloud. Scientists are seeking to understand whether such clouds may become more common with climate change.
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