California fire spawns towering, ashy clouds

When wildfires grow hot and large enough, they can spawn towering, smoky clouds. The Apple Fire burning in Southern California’s San Bernardino National Forest produced these big plumes, called pyrocumulus clouds, over the weekend. The new, active blaze has burned over 26,000 acres of parched land as of Monday morning, with conditions ripe for flames. The fire is only 5 percent contained. "It's very hot and dry and that area hasn’t burned in a long time, so there’s lots of fuel," said a public information officer at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), referencing the ample supply of dried-out vegetation. Read more...More about California, Climate Change, Fires, Science, and Climate Environment