The Calcite Creek fire, burning near the eastern edge of Manning Park, produced a pyrocumulonimbus cloud Sunday afternoon which generated thunder and lightning strikes.

According to the BC Wildfire Service, the phenomenon is not uncommon on large, intense wildfires.

“It is something that we see. That fire was burning rank four, so a crowning fire through the canopy, and when a fire burns that hot, one of the things that we can see is that it starts to generate its own weather,” said Taylor Shantz, a fire information officer.

The fire is officially listed as 4,100 hectares in size, but Shantz said that is likely an underestimate because the weather being generated by the fire made it difficult for aircraft crews to clearly see the perimeter.