
Heavy smoke billows from a wildfire in Irvine, California in September 2024
Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images
The alarming trend of wildfires in the western US will increase with more smoke in the atmosphere. As wildfires grow larger with climate change, they are likely to produce massive storm clouds that can send smoke up into the stratosphere.
“These really high fire lumen heights are the ones that burn the most area and probably produce the most smoke,” he says. Derek Mallia At the University of Utah, he presented research in the American Geophysical…