The ‘fire-breathing dragon of clouds’ over France: When a wildfire creates its own weather

 France has recorded its first known ‘fire cloud’ as extreme wildfires sweep across Europe. Also called a pyrocumulonimbus, the towering storm forms when intense heat pushes smoke, air and moisture high into the atmosphere. It can generate powerful winds, lightning and fresh fires, allowing a wildfire to influence, and sometimes create, its own weather. France has recorded its first known ‘fire cloud’ as extreme wildfires sweep across Europe. Also called a pyrocumulonimbus, the towering storm forms when intense heat pushes smoke, air and moisture high into the atmosphere. It can generate powerful winds, lightning and fresh fires, allowing a wildfire to influence, and sometimes create, its own weather.