Up in Smoke

Pyrocumulus cloud—it's an eerie term, almost tailored to the era of climate chaos. A pyrocumulus forms when hot air rises off a wildfire. The resulting cloud can stretch for miles into the sky—evidence of a fire big enough and hot enough to create its own weather. This pyrocumulus formed above the Happy Camp Complex Fire in California's Klamath National Forest in 2014.

See more of Balog's work at sc.org/balog.