‘Ice’ is not the first thing that pops into your mind when thinking of wildfires, is it? And yet, new research is pointing to a link between such fires and the teeny tiny bits of ice that form clouds.
Image credits Sippakorn Yamkasikorn.
A new study is looking at the link between wildfires and ice-containing clouds like cumulonimbus or cirrus, the main drivers of continental precipitation. According to the findings, these clouds require microparticles to start forming which a wildfire can supply in great quantities.
Ashes to rain
Cloud formation is a complex phenomenon, one that can shift quite significantly depending on conditions such as temperature or atmospheric dynamics. The clouds you’re used to seeing, for example, start their lives around very tiny particles, known as ice-nucleating particles (INPs). These can be anything from bacteria to minerals, just as long as they’re very tiny.