Pyrocumulonimbus

Driving up to Perth on a warm summer evening on the 6th of January 2016, I noticed what looked like a huge explosion to the east of my location. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was witnessing the formation of an extremely rare pyrocumulonimbus cloud, created after lightning started a bushfire in the Waroona district, very close to the townsite of Yarloop here in Western Australia.

A pyrocumulonimbus cloud, also known as cumulonimbus flammagenitus, is a type of cumulonimbus cloud that forms above a source of heat such as a wildfire or volcanic eruption and is the most extreme manifestation of this type of cloud.

Bushfires are a part of life here in Western Australia. Something I have witnessed and documented a lot throughout my lifetime, regardless I pulled off the road baffled by what I was watching unfold. Its timing, coinciding with sunset created a spectacular but distressing display of colour of what was to become one of the worst fire events in Western Australian History.

The fire burnt for 17 days until it was extinguished. In its aftermath 69,000 hectares of some of Western Australia’s best agricultural land, more than 160 homes including the townsite of Yarloop and surrounds were destroyed, causing two fatalities. The townsite and surrounding regions have since been rebuilt but this day, the ones that followed and its effect on people’s lives will never be forgotten.