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Pyrocumulonimbus clouds in British Columbia

By Scott Bachmeier •

5-minute GOES-18 Visible images with the Fire Mask derived product (left) and Infrared Window images (right) with METAR surface reports plotted in cyan, from 1746 UTC on 07 July to 0201 UTC on 08 July

5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) images (above) showed the development of a large wildfire southeast of Lytton, British Columbia (CWLY) — which produced multiple pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds on 07 July 2026. Each pyroCb exhibited cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures in the -40s C (shades of blue) to -50s C (shades of red) — temperatures cold enough to ensure that heterogeneous glaciation has occurred at the cloud top.

This wildfire burned very hot, with the GOES-18 Fire Mask displaying Saturated Fire (yellow) pixels at 2211 UTC and 2216 UTC (below).

GOES-18 Visible image with the Fire Mask derived product (left) and Infrared Window image (right) at 2211 UTC on 07 July, with a cursor sample highlighting a Saturated Fire pixel [click to enlarge]
GOES-18 Visible image with the Fire Mask derived product (left) and Infrared Window image (right) at 2216 UTC on 07 July, with a cursor sample highlighting a Saturated Fire pixel [click to enlarge]

The coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature associated with these pyroCbs was -56.57 C at 0046 UTC on 08 July, after one of the clouds had drifted far northeast of the source fire (below).

GOES-18 Visible image with the Fire Mask derived product (left) and Infrared Window image (right) at 0046 UTC on 08 July, with a cursor sample highlighting the coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature [click to enlarge]

Categories: Fire detection, GOES-18