For the first time, a study shows that storms can be strengthened by fires in the west. Severe storms can be brought to states like Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Dakotas, due to the heat and particles produced by western wildfires.
The storms in the Central U.S. are usually separated by seasons. The two events now strike closer together as the fires begin earlier.
The relationship between the two phenomena was discovered by Jiwen Fan, a Laboratory Fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. It was the first time in 20 years that storms lasted over four days.
Fan, who led the new study, thought there was a connection. Her team used data to explore a possible connection between the storms and the fires. The group used weather models to figure out how the fires could affect the weather.
Fan said that they needed to be careful and informed. The more we know about the causes of storms like this, the better prepared we will be. We know that there will be more fires in the west as a result of the future climate.
There will be more severe storms in the Central U.S. The impact of western wildfires on central storms may become more important in the future.
Strong storms.
The relationship is behind something. There are fires raging in the Western U.S. The fire area was 10 to 40 times hotter than normal in July. Aerosols are smoke particles.
There is a difference in air pressure. Air pressure is high. Air pressure is usually lower in the Central U.S. As high pressure builds near the fire, the surrounding air moves towards lower pressure air, which strengthens the wind that already moves west to east.
Smoke aerosols are carried from western to central states. The winds carry atmosphericMoisture along their journey The greater concentration of aerosols kicks off a series of storm-strengthening reactions.
The extra surface area on which water vapor can condense is provided by the aerosols. The heat comes from the water as it condenses. Adding heat helps strengthen storms. The hailstones are formed when the storm is strong.
The hailstones are lifted up by updrafts inside the storm. Every second a hailstone spends inside the storm, it can collect more cooled water droplets, creating a bigger and bigger hailstone. Once the stones are too heavy to be lifted by the storm's updrafts, they fall down, dealing with damage to crops, buildings, cars and occasionally people.
According to the study, local wildfires in the Central U.S. strengthened the storms. The fires in the west are much stronger than the ones in the east. Fan's group wants to find similar connections in other regions.
The findings could help inform future severe weather forecasts according to the first author of the new study.
The storms cost over 100 million dollars in damage. Better projections could be brought about if we know that distant wildfires contribute to stronger storms.
The Carr Fire, which claimed a quarter of a million acres in California, and the Mendocino Complex Fire, which dealt $257 million in damage and burned 280 structures in the same state, were among the fires that were being studied.
In a changing environment.
More aerosols from wildfires will be lofted into the Earth's atmosphere and influence its climate in ways that scientists are trying to understand. How will the climate change affect storms that produce hail?
Fan found that some storms are more sensitive to climate change than others. The storms that are sensitive to the weather are associated with a large-scale weather pattern.
Fan said that the study links the impacts of climate change on hailstorms to the easier-to-model large-scale weather patterns.
The authors of the study are from PNNL. The University of Oklahoma's Cameron Homeyer is one of the authors.
The study on the response of hailstorms to climate change was written by the authors. Rebecca Adams-Selin is a contributing author.
The paper was published in October.
More information: Yuwei Zhang et al, Notable impact of wildfires in the western United States on weather hazards in the central United States, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2207329119Jiwen Fan and her colleagues compared the responses of hailstorms to climate change in different weather systems. The DOI is 10.1029/EF002768.
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