The worst wildfires can send smoke high enough to affect the ozone layer
Pyrocumulonimbus clouds can send soot and other damaging particles 23 kilometers into the air

FIRE CLOUDS Pyrocumulonimbus clouds are created by intense wildfires (one from a 2004 fire in Arizona shown). The fire clouds can reach higher into the stratosphere than scientists thought, where the plumes can have climatic effects.
Eric Neitzel/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
This article is only available to Science News subscribers.
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address to access our archives.
