Funny as he's explaining that the red is hot and the orange and yellow are less hot, and how that is a map of the heat put off by the fire, you can clearly see the caption on the photo that explains that it is a map of when the fire was active in those area, 0-6 hours, 6-12, 12-24, and up to six days.
Now, functionally it still works a bit like he explains, if there is a large area of active fire in the past 6-12 hours there is more heat being produced in a smaller period of time, but those yellow and orange areas are no longer putting off any heat... they already burned.
You are quite correct! There certainly are better and more academic explanations of pyrocumulus clouds out there. However, this one being specific to the Rim Fire I felt it more useful in conveying to people what it is they are seeing with this fire and not some example in Montana in 2002 or similar.
Funny as he's explaining that the red is hot and the orange and yellow are less hot, and how that is a map of the heat put off by the fire, you can clearly see the caption on the photo that explains that it is a map of when the fire was active in those area, 0-6 hours, 6-12, 12-24, and up to six days.
ReplyDeleteNow, functionally it still works a bit like he explains, if there is a large area of active fire in the past 6-12 hours there is more heat being produced in a smaller period of time, but those yellow and orange areas are no longer putting off any heat... they already burned.
Nice picture of the cloud though!
Dan,
DeleteYou are quite correct! There certainly are better and more academic explanations of pyrocumulus clouds out there. However, this one being specific to the Rim Fire I felt it more useful in conveying to people what it is they are seeing with this fire and not some example in Montana in 2002 or similar.