Coupling Between Fire Plume Growth and Atmospheric Conditions: Understanding Extreme Wildfire Spread

Extreme wildfires change behavior within minutes, spreading rapidly and generating enormous atmospheric plumes, sometimes forming pyroclouds. These transitions are difficult to predict and pose serious risks to firefighters and communities. Marc Castellnou’s PhD research shows that understanding extreme wildfires requires investigating beyond the flames to investigate how fires interact with the atmosphere and create their own weather.
By launching atmospheric balloons into wildfire plumes while simultaneously measuring the surrounding atmosphere, Marc identified an important early stage of plume development—dry pyroconvection—which can precede cloud formation. His research also helps explain why some extreme fires remain highly active at night, when they would normally weaken.
As climate change increases conditions favorable to extreme wildfires, understanding these fire–atmosphere interactions become increasingly important. By combining meteorological research with firefighters’ expertise and observations, this thesis lays the foundation for early-warning tools to anticipate sudden changes in fire behavior and better protect communities.

Marc Castellnou Ribau

The candidate of the PhD defence "Coupling Between Fire Plume Growth and Atmospheric Conditions: Understanding Extreme Wildfire Spread".