RE: convection column??

["Bob Morris" <bobmorris@rmci.net>]

It appears that you have been reading the daily IAFC release. That comes from here in Boise. It is put out every morning about 6:00 am.

 

A convection column is when the fire is starting to really generate it's own weather. The heat from the fire rises and thus brings in more cold air that hearts and rises faster ad infinitum. The movement of air adds more oxygen to the fire the fire burns hotter the hotter air rises in a column bringing in more air at the surface the more air at the surface makes the fire hotter and on and on. That is when the smoke you see is towering way above everything else.

 

Not a very nice situation to be near. The ground with in gets super heated sterilizing the ground so it is a long time before anything grows in the area.

 

We have been very fortunate here in this part of Idaho. No fires of any size near Boise but it was the last week in August in 1996 when we almost lost our facilities, Started by a police man target shooting with tracers on a day that was 102 degrees and the tracers were landing in dry grass. Fires built to order!.

 

Be safe and remember that winter is coming.

 

Bob Morris

-----Original Message-----
From: Whitney Bass [mailto:bass@bigsky.net]
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2000 3:56 PM
To: ridecamp
Subject: RC: convection column??

 

I was just reading the updates on fires here in western Montana, and read that a fire "crossed containment lines and showed intense fire behavior including a convection column"??  I don't know what a convection column is, and was wondering if some "smarty" could fill me in??!!   Thanks!

 

Whitney