This week, the wildfire that was burning along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon doubled in size in a matter of days and got so intense that it was producing its own weather.

The Dragon Bravo Fire grew explosively because to hostile meteorological conditions, such as extreme dry heat and strong winds, which also wiped out a large portion of the fire teams’ containment efforts.

As of Friday morning, the National Interagency Fire Center reported that the fire in northern Arizona was 8% controlled and had burnt through around 112,000 acres since it started on July 4. With a footprint about three times the size of Washington, DC, it is the largest fire presently raging in the lower 48 states.

Once the Dragon Bravo fire surpassed the 100,000-acre mark, it became a megafire. According to Inciweb data, the wildfire has more than doubled in size since Sunday, when it reached around 50,000 acres.

This is due to the fact that bone-dry fire fuels, such as brush, can catch fire quickly. A fire update on Thursday stated that the fuels were dehydrated to a level dryer than kiln-dried lumber due to days of extremely dry air.

Only around 3% of wildfires grow to the size of the Dragon Bravo Fire, but megafires like this one make up the majority of the total acreage burned annually in the US.

On Independence Day, a lightning strike started the wildfire, and instead of putting it out right away, crews decided to manage it as a controlled burn. About a week after it started, the fire rapidly got out of control, and firefighters have been battling to keep it contained ever since.

In an update late Friday morning, Southwest Area Incident Management Section Chief Craig Daugherty stated that while certain areas of the fire have been brought under control, they are still not completely contained. The northern edge of the fire and a section in the southwest, where it is still expanding, are the primary areas of concern, according to Daugherty.

In mid-July, the iconic Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim was destroyed by fire, along with at least 70 other buildings, including cabins and a visitor center.

This previous weekend, the fire was 26% contained, which was its highest level to date. However, this week’s increasing weather has caused unpredictable fire behavior, significantly reducing the fire’s containment level.

The fire actually got so bad that it started to produce its own weather.

Fire information officer Lisa Jennings told the Associated Press on Thursday that pyrocumulus, or “fire clouds,” have been observed over the Dragon Bravo Fire for at least seven days in a straight.

Over extreme heat sources, such as raging wildfires or volcanic eruptions, pyrocumulus clouds occur. They occur as a result of the air above such extreme heat being rapidly and erratically driven to climb, cooling and condensing the moisture in the air to form clouds.

A pyrocumulonimbus, also known as a “fire thunderstorm cloud,” which produces lightning, wind gusts, and occasionally tornadoes, can be fueled by a wildfire that is hot and chaotic enough. These kinds of clouds could produce more lightning strikes, which could rekindle existing fires or burn previously extinguished regions.

Even if the fire doesn’t cause its own weather, circumstances will still be difficult until at least the beginning of next week, if not later.

On Friday, showers and thunderstorms are a remote possibility, but any extra wind or lightning in those storms could quickly offset the little to no benefit that rain offers.

Through Tuesday, the Grand Canyon is under an extreme heat warning, and strong wind conditions are expected to persist throughout the beginning of next week. Before gusts of up to 30 mph start to appear early next week, there will be frequent wind gusts of about 20 to 25 mph on Friday and over the weekend.