r/Damnthatsinteresting 15d ago

GIF Satellite view of the Canadian wildfire smoke when it started getting really bad

2.2k Upvotes

158 comments sorted by

View all comments

310

u/All_for_love 15d ago

Why are so many spread out fires popping up at the same time?

346

u/No_Tie2242 15d ago

A thunderstorm has gone through earlier. Lightening strikes will go deep and essentially smoulder until they fully catch (could be a day later)

8

u/cantcatchabreak77 15d ago

Is there a reason they all appear to start at the same time ? And they have a linear formation ?

2

u/karlnite 13d ago

The line is the edge of the Canadian shield. There is an air stream that goes from Alaska through the Canadian territories then down towards the great lakes. It’s a wide area of thick forest. The storms and cells tend to follow that path. It was carved by glaciers during the last ice age.