Pyrocumulus Clouds and After
Have you heard of pyrocumulus clouds? The link below is for a short video explanation that I found on YouTube. It is a timely topic for those of us out west. The Pine Gulch Fire north of Grand Junction, Colorado caused this weather phenomenon to happen. Unfortunately, the fire is only the start of a series of changes to the landscape. The effects of the fire will take years to recover. With no vegetation and baked ground (think crust), rainfall flows off of the mountainsides much faster.
The faster runoff overwhelms streams and gullies that normally have flows that rise and fall over a longer time. Flowing water can cause massive erosion, especially in the mountains where gravity adds “fuel to the fire.” As a mountaineer, my senses are finely tuned to the continual pull of gravity. Rock fall and avalanches occur frequently in the mountains. When nature mixes a burnt landscape with rain and gravity, the ground becomes a flowing slurry. The slurry includes ash, mud, rock, and any logs that weren’t completely burnt. Follow this link to see a post-wildfire flow.
Some people want to demonize nature by saying the mountains are punishing us or nature is lashing out at us. No, it is nature being nature. The mountains don’t care if we are climbing them or building houses on them. The forces of nature are always at work. Lightning strikes, trees burn, rain falls, rocks fall, and nature shapes the land as it always has. The mountains are just there. We need to respect them and be aware of the hazards associated with them.
TJ Burr, Rocky Mountain Adventures & Insights
