Usually, as a plume moves away from its source, it widens because of entrainment of the surrounding fluid at its edges. Plume shapes can be influenced by flow in the ambient fluid (for example, if local wind blowing in the same direction as the plume results in a co-flowing jet). This usually causes a plume which has initially been buoyancy-dominated to become momentum-dominated (this transition is usually predicted by a dimensionless number called the Richardson number).