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A rare wildfire burning through France's Bordeaux region has spread into Western Madrid, producing a fire cloud large enough to generate its own thunderstorms.
The constraint here is atmospheric: when a blaze reaches sufficient heat output, the rising combustion column pulls moisture aloft and builds a cumulonimbus structure powered by the fire rather than by conventional weather systems.
The mechanism behind fire-generated weather A fire cloud of this class feeds on its own energy column.
Heat rising from the burn draws ambient air inward at ground level, which increases the oxygen supply at the fire front and can accelerate spread.
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