CNN
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The Line Fire in California is raging so fiercely that it’s creating its own weather.

On Monday, dramatic pyrocumulus clouds, or “fire clouds,” exploded above the fire just as a high-resolution weather satellite was surveying the planet from hundreds of miles above Earth’s surface.

Pyrocumulus clouds form over sources of intense heat, such as raging wildfires or volcanic eruptions. The air above such intense heat is forced to rise rapidly and chaotically, which cools and condenses the moisture in the air, creating clouds.

However, pyrocumulus clouds also absorb large amounts of smoke and ash from the fires they form, making them much darker than a typical white, puffy cloud.

That’s exactly what the Landsat-8 satellite, a joint data-collection project between NASA and the United States Geological Survey, saw on Monday.

Huge pyrocumulus clouds bubbled up over the raging Line Fire, sending smoke and ash thousands of feet into the air. These clouds looked more like dirty cauliflower or used cotton balls in satellite images, compared to the puffy white cumulus clouds to the east of the fire.

The pyrocumulus clouds were also surrounded by smoke, which appears light brown or tan in color in the satellite image.

Later in the day, the Line Fire’s pyrocumulus clouds eventually turned into pyrocumulonimbus, producing lightning and rain, NASA said.

While the rainfall from such a storm can help with firefighting, the strong winds and additional lightning strikes in dry areas can spark new fires.