Get the latest news and updates from Dawn
PARIS: Firefighters battling devastating fires in France have had to contend with a new threat: immense fire clouds that create their own wind and even lightning that can spark fresh blazes.
Known as “fire clouds” or pyrocumulonimbus clouds, these ominous-looking thunderstorms are created by extreme wildfires and can exacerbate already extremely dangerous conditions.
This phenomenon, which is new to France, is yet another consequence of human-caused climate change, according to French researcher Jean-Baptiste Filippi, who studies wildfires.
As firefighters in southwest France struggle to bring a forest inferno under control before yet another heatwave descends on the country, Filippi said about the phenomenon.
