New Delhi, July 27 -- As firefighters battle one of France's worst wildfire seasons in recent years, an unusual atmospheric phenomenon has drawn the attention of scientists: a pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb), also known as a fire cloud or cumulonimbus flammagenitus.

National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF) said the giant wildfire in the country's southwest had generated a pyrocumulonimbus - a phenomenon they described as never before observed in France. The appearance of these towering clouds underscores not only the intensity of the fires but also the dangerous feedback loop they can create, worsening wildfire conditions.

A pyrocumulonimbus is essentially a thunderstorm created by a wildfire rather than by the sun heating the Earth...