Like a scene out of an apocalyptic movie, a raging California wildfire pumped out a monster cloud towering 40,000 feet into the atmosphere on Thursday. As the Mosquito Fire tore across Tahoe National Forest, making a 5,000-acre run across the American River and pushing into the El Dorado County town of Volcanoville, the cloud grew and grew. [...] Alan Brewer, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, got a much closer look from a plane with a team of scientists who were flying along the side of the massive wall of sooty air to better understand fire behavior...
