Abstract
AbstractWildfires are extreme events associated with weather, climate, and environment and have been increasing globally in frequency, burn season length, and burned area. It is of great interest to understand the impacts of wildfires on severe convective storms through releasing heat and aerosols into the atmosphere. We have developed a model capability that can account for the impact of sensible heat fluxes from wildfires on thermodynamics and is computationally efficient. The pyrocumulonimbus clouds associated with the Texas Mallard Fire on 11–12 May 2018 are well simulated by accounting for both heat and aerosols emitted from the wildfire. Both heat and aerosol effects increase low‐level temperatures and midlevel buoyancy and enhance convective intensity. Intensified convection along with more supercooled liquid condensate due to stronger vertical transport results in larger hailstones and enhanced lightning. The effects of heat flux on the convective extremes are more significant than those of aerosol emissions.
Highlights
Wildfire frequency and burned area have been increasing in recent decades globally, in the western United States (e.g., Dennison et al, 2014; Miller et al, 2012)
We have developed a model capability that can account for the impact of sensible heat fluxes from wildfires on thermodynamics and is computationally efficient
This type of deep convective cloud is unique in its microphysical structure for the following reasons: (1) There exist high concentrations of small cloud droplets that result from a large number of cloud condensation nuclei due to the aerosol particles emitted by fire that compete for limited condensable water vapor (Andreae et al, 2004), and (2) these clouds initiate and develop under the vigorous dynamics and thermodynamics induced by the fire itself
Summary
Wildfire frequency and burned area have been increasing in recent decades globally, in the western United States (e.g., Dennison et al, 2014; Miller et al, 2012). PyroCb is associated with a hot surface temperature, strong surface winds, low relative humidity, and deep mixed layer (Clements et al, 2018; Cruz et al, 2012; Fromm et al, 2006, 2012; Lareau & Clements, 2016) This type of deep convective cloud is unique in its microphysical structure for the following reasons: (1) There exist high concentrations of small cloud droplets that result from a large number of cloud condensation nuclei due to the aerosol particles emitted by fire that compete for limited condensable water vapor (Andreae et al, 2004), and (2) these clouds initiate and develop under the vigorous dynamics and thermodynamics induced by the fire itself.
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