‘Fire clouds’ threaten western US as rain, floods sweep East Coast
SALT LAKE CITY—Two wildfires burning in the western United States—including one that has become a “megafire” on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon—are so hot that they’re spurring the formation of “fire clouds” that can create their own erratic weather systems.
In Arizona, the wind-whipped wildfire that destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge is 9 percent contained and has charred more than 425 square kilometers to become the largest fire now burning in the continental US.
Another large fire in Monroe, Utah, has burned 194 sq km since July 13 and is 11 percent contained, officials said on Thursday. Evacuation orders were issued on Wednesday for several towns in the fire’s path, and scorched power poles caused electricity to be shut off in other nearby communities in south-central Utah.
Powerful winds
Towering convection clouds known as pyrocumulus clouds have been spotted over Arizona’s blaze for seven consecutive days, fueling the fire with dry, powerful winds, fire information officer Lisa Jennings said. They form when air over the fire becomes super-heated and rises in a large smoke column. The billowing clouds can be seen for hundreds of miles and can look like an anvil or a dark spear jutting into the atmosphere.
Their more treacherous big brother, a fire-fueled thunderstorm known as the pyrocumulonimbus cloud, sent rapid winds shooting out in all directions this week as a smoke column formed from the Utah fire then collapsed on itself, said fire team information officer Jess Clark.
“If they get high enough, they can also create downdrafts and that’s something we really watch out for because that can quickly spread the fire and can be very dangerous for firefighters who are doing their work on the ground,” Jennings said.
Retreat for safety
Multiple fire crews in Utah were forced to retreat on Wednesday as the unpredictable climate created by the clouds threatened their safety, officials said.
The same type of cloud, which the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has dubbed the “fire-breathing dragon of clouds,” recently formed a fire tornado that tore through an eastern Utah neighborhood with wind speeds estimated at 196 kilometers per hour.
Meanwhile, strong rain storms lashed the East Coast on Thursday, delaying flights throughout the region and prompting emergency rescues of motorists trapped in deep water on busy highways from the Philadelphia area to New York City.
In New York, flash flooding briefly closed sections of major roadways and flooded train stations across the metropolitan region just as the evening rush hour approached.
Commuters captured video of water pouring over a train on a platform in Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal, while commuter rail lines into suburban Long Island and New Jersey were suspended in places as tracks were deluged. Power lines also were impacted.
Water on tracks
Amtrak officials announced on Thursday evening that trains between Philadelphia and Wilmington were stopped because of severe storms causing high water over the tracks.
“Once a route is available, anticipate residual delays,” company officials posted on X.
Traffic cameras and social media posts on a highway in the New York City borough of Queens showed motorists at one point standing on the roofs of stranded vehicles and a tractor trailer nearly fully submerged. Police said they pulled cars carrying two people from the flooded stretch before the waters receded and traffic slowly resumed.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other local officials pleaded with people to stay off the roads and urged residents in basement apartments to move to higher locations as rain was expected to fall through Friday afternoon.
In Pennsylvania, National Weather Service warnings of up to 3 inches of rain in an hour produced flooding in Reading, a city about 96 km northwest of Philadelphia.
