Fast-moving wildfires produce pyrocumulonimbus clouds over S…
Himawari-9 – CIMSS Satellite Blog (Scott Bachmeier)
2.5 minute JMA Himawari-9 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm, top), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm, center) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.4 µm, bottom) images from 0200-1047 UTC on 25 March [click to play animated GIF | MP4]
2.5-minute JMA Himawari-9 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm), Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (above) showed the formation of 3 pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds that were spawned by a wildfire complex in the eastern part of South Korea on 25 March 2025. The pyroCbs exhibited cloud-top 10.4 µm infrared brightness temperatures (IRBTs) in the -40s C (denoted by shades of blue to cyan), a necessary condition to be classified as a pyroCb. The first 2 small, brief pyroCb pulses formed at 0832 UTC and 0840 UTC, with the largest and more long-lived pyroCb developing at 0842 UTC. These were the first pyroCb clouds to be documented in South Korea.
2.5-minute Himawari-9 Shortwave Infrared images (below) showed that the wind-driven wildfire complex made a rapid eastward run beginning around 0700 UTC, reaching the coast shortly after 1200 UTC.
2.5-minute JMA Himawari-9 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images, from 0300-1402 UTC on 25 March [click to play animated GIF | MP4]
A toggle between surface analyses at 0000 UTC and 1200 UTC (below) indicated that a low pressure system moved from northeastern China to the Yellow Sea — and tightly spaced isobars behind the low across the Korean Peninsula supported the presence of strong winds that were responsible for the rapid eastward run of the wildfire complex that produced the pyroCb clouds.
Surface analyses at 0000 UTC and 1200 UTC on 25 March
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