{"id":70404,"date":"2026-05-14T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=70404"},"modified":"2026-05-16T03:11:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T03:11:23","slug":"pyrocumulonimbus-cloud-in-the-oklahoma-panhandle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/70404","title":{"rendered":"Pyrocumulonimbus cloud in the Oklahoma Panhandle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div style=\"width: 3002px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260514_goes19_visibleFireMask_shortwaveInfrared_infraredWindow_OK_pyroCb.mp4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260515_0021utc_goes19_visibleFireMask_shortwaveInfrared_infraredWindow_OK_pyroCb.png\" width=\"2992\" height=\"1676\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">1-minute GOES-19 0.64 \u00b5m Visible + Fire Mask images (left), 3.9 \u00b5m Shortwave Infrared images (center) and 10.3 \u00b5m Infrared Window images (right), from 2321 UTC on 14 May to 0100 UTC on 15 May [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>1-minute <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov\/status\/satellite\/\"><strong>Mesoscale Domain Sector<\/strong><\/a> GOES-19 <em>(GOES-East)<\/em> Visible images (with an overlay of the <a href=\"http:\/\/rammb.cira.colostate.edu\/training\/visit\/training_sessions\/goes_r_fire_surface_properties\/video\/presentation_html5.html?lms=1\"><strong>FDCA<\/strong><\/a> Fire Mask derived product), Shortwave Infrared images and Infrared Window images <em><strong>(above)<\/strong><\/em> showed the thermal anomaly associated with a wildfire in the far western Oklahoma Panhandle that produced a small <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43247-022-00566-8\"><strong>pyrocumulonimbus<\/strong><\/a> (pyroCb) cloud shortly before sunset on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov\/dailywxmap\/index_20260514.html\"><strong>14 May 2026<\/strong><\/a>. Note that a RAWS site just southwest of the pyroCb-producing wildfire reported a wind gust to 63 mph (during the 30-minute period ending at 2330 UTC), followed by a wind gust to 47 mph (during the 30-minute period ending at 0030 UTC).<\/p>\n<p>A cursor sample of the GOES-19 Infrared Window image at 0005 UTC on 15 May <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em> showed when the pyroCb cloud first exhibited a cloud-top 10.3 \u00b5m brightness temperatures of -40\u00baC (dark blue enhancement) or colder &#8212; a necessary condition to be classified as a pyrocumulonimbus cloud. The coldest pyroCb cloud-top 10.3 \u00b5m infrared brightness temperature was -47.41\u00baC, which occurred as early as <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260515_0040utc_goes19_vis_swir_ir_pyroCb_minimumIRBT.png\"><strong>0040 UTC<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><div style=\"width: 3002px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260515_0005utc_goes19_visibleFireMask_shortwaveInfrared_infraredWindow_OK_pyroCb_cursor_sample.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260515_0005utc_goes19_visibleFireMask_shortwaveInfrared_infraredWindow_OK_pyroCb_cursor_sample.png\" width=\"2992\" height=\"1676\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">GOES-19 0.64 \u00b5m Visible + Fire Mask image (left), 3.9 \u00b5m Shortwave Infrared image (center) and 10.3 \u00b5m Infrared Window image (right) at 0005 UTC on 15 May, with a cursor sample of the Infrared Window brightness temperature [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>1-minute GOES-19 GeoColor RGB images with <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/ngfs\/\"><strong>NGFS<\/strong><\/a> Fire Detection polygons <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0revealed that the smoke-laden pyroCb cloud top exhibited subtle shades of tan (<a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260515_0037utc_goes19_geoColorRGB_ngfsFireDetections_OK_pyroCb.png\"><strong>0037 UTC image<\/strong><\/a>) &#8212; in contrast to the brighter-white cloud tops of adjacent convection.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 3034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260514_goes19_trueColorRGB_ngfsFireDetections_OK_pyroCb.mp4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260515_0037utc_goes19_geoColorRGB_ngfsFireDetections_OK_pyroCb.png\" width=\"3024\" height=\"1790\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">1-minute GOES-19 True Color RGB images with an overlay of NGFS Fire Detection polygons, from 2345 UTC on 14 May to 0045 UTC on 15 May [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Visible images (with an overlay of the FDCA Fire Mask derived product), Shortwave Infrared images and Infrared Window images (above) showed the thermal anomaly associated with a wildfire in the far western Oklahoma Panhandle that produced a small pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) cloud shortly before sunset on 14 May 2026. Note [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":70405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,159,158,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fire-detection","category-goes-19","category-ngfs","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70404"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70468,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70404\/revisions\/70468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}