The Black Summer fire season of 2019–2020 in southeastern Australia contributed to an intense ‘super outbreak’ of fire-induced and smoke-infused thunderstorms, known as pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb). More than half of the 38 observed pyroCbs injected smoke particles directly into the stratosphere, producing two of the three largest smoke plumes observed at such altitudes to date. Over the course of 3 months, these plumes encircled a large swath of the Southern Hemisphere while continuing to rise, in a manner consistent with existing nuclear winter theory. We connect cause and effect of this event by quantifying the fire characteristics, fuel consumption, and meteorology contributing to the pyroCb spatiotemporal evolution. Emphasis is placed on the unusually long duration of sustained pyroCb activity and anomalous persistence during nighttime hours. The ensuing stratospheric smoke plumes are compared with plumes injected by significant volcanic eruptions over the last decade. As the second record-setting stratospheric pyroCb event in the last 4 years, the Australian super outbreak offers new clues on the potential scale and intensity of this increasingly extreme fire-weather phenomenon in a warming climate.

澳大利亚东南部 2019 年至 2020 年的黑色夏季火灾季节导致了火灾引发和烟雾弥漫的雷暴的强烈“超级爆发”，称为热积雨云 (pyroCb)。在观察到的 38 个焦炭中，有一半以上将烟雾颗粒直接注入平流层，产生了迄今为止在此类高度观察到的三个最大的烟羽中的两个。在 3 个月的时间里，这些羽流环绕南半球的大片区域，同时继续上升，其方式与现有的核冬天理论一致。我们通过量化促成焦炭时空演变的火灾特征、燃料消耗和气象，将这一事件的因果联系起来。重点放在持续的pyrCb 活动异常长的持续时间和夜间异常持久性。随后产生的平流层烟羽与过去十年重大火山喷发注入的烟羽进行了比较。作为过去 4 年中第二次创纪录的平流层热碳事件，澳大利亚的超级爆发为气候变暖下这种日益极端的火灾天气现象的潜在规模和强度提供了新的线索。