The only real comparison for what happened in B.C. on Aug. 12, 2017, would be a volcanic eruption.
On that day, in the midst of the province’s record-breaking wildfire season, the heat from four fires triggered huge thunderstorms that sent smoke soaring into the stratosphere, eventually spreading through the entire Northern Hemisphere.
It was the biggest so-called pyrocumulonimbus event ever observed, according to David Peterson, a meteorologist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, Calif.
“This was the most significant fire-driven thunderstorm event in history. Nothing else even comes close,” Peterson told CBC News.
“The total amount of smoke that was released into the lower stratosphere was comparable to a moderate volcanic eruption.”
Pyrocumulus clouds seen
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