Uploaded October 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The Cameron Peak wildfire in north-central Colorado has been burning since 13 August 2020. As I write this on 14 October it's burned 135,000 acres and is one of the biggest wildfires in Colorado history [Update (15 Oct.) It is now past 160,000 acres and is the single biggest wildfire in state history.]. Climate change is making fire season longer, drying out fuel more, allowing tree-boring insects to live longer and have two generational cycles per summer instead of just one, and keeping Colorado in a drought longer. This is the result.
It's about 80 km from me to the northwest-ish, so the plume is easy to spot. It was absent yesterday; recent snow and temperature drops slowed the fire. But this morning I woke up to a huge plume lit by the low Sun, so I took a time-lapse of it. This one minute of footage is a half-hour of real time. The winds to the east are pretty fast today so the movement is rapid. There was also a decent pyrocumulus cloud head to it earlier, a giant cloud caused by the heat of the fire forcing air to rise above it.
As of right now the fire is 56% contained.
More info on the fire: inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6964
The Cameron Peak wildfire in north-central Colorado has been burning since 13 August 2020. As I write this on 14 October it's burned 135,000 acres and is one of the biggest wildfires in Colorado history [Update (15 Oct.) It is now past 160,000 acres and is the single biggest wildfire in state history.]. Climate change is making fire season longer, drying out fuel more, allowing tree-boring insects to live longer and have two generational cycles per summer instead of just one, and keeping Colorado in a drought longer. This is the result.
It's about 80 km from me to the northwest-ish, so the plume is easy to spot. It was absent yesterday; recent snow and temperature drops slowed the fire. But this morning I woke up to a huge plume lit by the low Sun, so I took a time-lapse of it. This one minute of footage is a half-hour of real time. The winds to the east are pretty fast today so the movement is rapid. There was also a decent pyrocumulus cloud head to it earlier, a giant cloud caused by the heat of the fire forcing air to rise above it.
As of right now the fire is 56% contained.
More info on the fire: inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6964
