Intense western US wildfire now changing weather patterns

By Andy Roesgen

CHICAGO, United States (AA) - An extremely large and intense wildfire in the US state of Oregon is now so hot, it is affecting the weather.

A gigantic plume of white smoke, looking like a volcanic eruption, can be seen above southcentral Oregon, where the so-called Bootleg fire is burning.

Climatologists say the "pyrocumulus clouds" are so hot, they form their own thunderstorms of wind and lightning. Unfortunately, they do not form rain, which the area desperately needs.

The fire roared to life July 6 in a national forest and is now about 864 square miles (1,390 square kilometers) in size, or about half the size of Los Angeles.

The Oregon Department of Forestry said the fire is about 30% contained.

As of Tuesday, the National Interagency Fire Center said there are 83 ongoing large fires burning in 13 mostly western states, and more than 19,000 firefighters are employed in the operations.

Collectively, is said the fires have burned more than 1 million acres and even where there is no fire, smoky, hazy skies fill much of the Rocky Mountain West.

And there is little relief in sight. The National Weather Service is predicting temperatures above normal for the next 48 hours with only a chance of scattered showers in spots in the West, not nearly enough to make a sizeable dent in most of the fires.

The situation is especially dire in southern Oregon. The Bootleg fire has destroyed dozens of homes and buildings and is being fueled by hot, dry winds.

More than 3 million people remain under "red flag" warnings that they are at risk of fire danger.

The groundwork for the West's fire outbreak was laid in late June when Oregon and neighboring Washington state saw record-breaking, triple-digit temperatures.

Even a small Canadian town, farther north, hit 122 Fahrenheit (50 Celsius).