Convective Activity Above a Large-Scale Bushfire

Abstract

Convection in the air above an intense fire in northern Australia has been studied, and the results are compared with those of an earlier investigation. At the height of the fire a short-lived condensation cloud, covering little more than 10% of the total fire area, rose to almost 6000 m above ground level. It is suggested that the rising column acted effectively as a barrier to the wind, so reducing mixing with the surrounding air and allowing convection to proceed very rapidly by the release of latent heat alone. In the earlier study it is likely that similar behavior occurred, but the effect was less marked.