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California Witnesses Rare ‘Fire Tornadoes’ Due To Wildfires And Storms; Watch Visuals

byNikita Manot
18th August 2020
2 minute read

Apart from the global health crisis, the state of California has been witnessing severe wildfires this year. Recently, the wildfire near Loyalton in Lassen County caused an additional unique phenomenon called a ‘fire tornado’ due to an extreme heatwave. The wildfire, which has charred almost 20,000 acres of land so far, was started by lightning, reports the Washington Post.

According to the Indian Express, a warning was issued by a local weather station saying that the clouds from the wildfire were “capable of producing a fire included tornado and outflow of winds in excess of 60 mph.” Eventually, people in California witnessed the rare and fiery tornado or as meteorologists call it a firenado (short for fire tornado).

Ben Gelber, a longtime meteorologist with WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio, was quoted saying by the New York Times, “It’s applying our traditional knowledge of tornadoes to a rare phenomenon.” He added,
It’s so unusual, it’s a little difficult to wrap our heads around. Of course, the towering clouds created by fires, we’ve all seen that. But the tornadic feature or multiple fire whirls, that’s just incredible.”
How does a fire tornado occur? Well, multiple components like turbulent winds, uneven terrain, and extreme heat from a fire, must come together for fire tornadoes to form. In this case, a pyrocumulonimbus cloud was formed by the intense heat of the Loyalton Fire, reports CNN. Thereafter, the fire tornadoes were created when the rising heat pulled in smoke, fire, and dirt, creating a rotation vortex above the blaze.

Several people shared images and videos of the ‘firenadoes’:

With more than a dozen wildfires across California, firefighters are battling scorching heatwaves to douse the fires. The sudden thunderstorms have only made the situation worse for them. We hope things come under control soon for the state of California.

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