The cloud that is seen streaking away from the Minnesota Fires in the image below is a ‘pyrocumulonimbus’ cloud, formed as a result of the fires beneath it.
According to the American Meteorological Society’s Glossary of Meteorology, a pyrocumulus is “a cumulus cloud formed by a rising thermal from a fire, or enhanced by buoyant plume emissions from an industrial combustion process.”
This image was taken by NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite on September 12, 2011 at 17:05 UTC (11:05 a.m. MDT).
Source: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
