The biggest wildfires don't just burn the landscape; they can actually create their own weather.

"These fires can create violent winds, huge towering clouds, lightning, as well as firenadoes,” meteorologist Caitlin Kaiser explains.

It's similar to how a thunderstorm forms, except the energy comes from the fire itself. 

As intense heat from the blaze sends air racing upward, it creates powerful updrafts that form towering clouds.

Fire Storms

Those clouds can evolve from smaller pyrocumulus clouds into massive pyrocumulonimbus clouds that can reach 50,000 feet into the atmosphere.

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Rather than helping extinguish the fire, they often make conditions even more dangerous. They can produce lightning that ignites new fires and “erratic violent winds that are very unpredictable and can actually help the fire spread.”

At the same time, there is little to no rain that actually reaches the ground from these storms, so they don’t provide much relief from the fire.

Fire Tornadoes

One of the most dramatic features these storms can produce is a so-called “firenado.”

Kaiser says they're formed as rising air begins spiraling, much like an ice skater gaining momentum in a spin. 

“These are typically pretty short lived, like maybe only a few minutes, but they can really pack a punch with winds up to 140 miles per hour,” she notes.

(MORE: Watch a 'firenado' rip across a burning field)

Battling The Fire

For firefighters, these fire-generated storms create a risky and constantly changing environment.

"Once a fire makes its own weather, this can be really difficult for firefighters because normal tactics for containment don't necessarily work," Kaiser says. "This makes it very unpredictable and dangerous."

Beyond the fire zone, the impacts can stretch for thousands of miles.

(MORE: Why fire season is getting longer)

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds can carry smoke and ash far above typical cruising altitude for airplanes, allowing it to travel across continents. If enough reaches the stratosphere, Kaiser says it "can have lingering effects for months, actually cooling down the temperature noticeably."

What’s worse, these fire-generated storms are becoming more common.

"We're seeing hotter temperatures, we're seeing a longer fire season, and we're seeing more extreme large fires," she says, adding that "this can all be attributed to climate change."