  Large fires can inject smoke into the upper troposphere and lower
stratosphere. Detailed fire simulations allow for assessment of how local
weather interacts with these fires and affects smoke lofting. In this study, we
employ the fire simulation package in the Weather Research and Forecasting
model (WRF-Fire), Version 4.0.1, to explore how smoke lofting from a fire
burning a homogeneous fuel bed changes with varying local winds, relative
humidity, and atmospheric boundary-layer stability for two different-sized
areal fires. We find that the presence of moisture has the greatest influence
on the results by raising the altitude of lofting, while faster winds speeds
dampen lofting and lower the injection height. Stably stratified conditions
further inhibit plume propagation compared with neutrally stratified
conditions.
