Natural Phenomenon: Fire Tornado

Fire Tornado AKA fire whirl/fire devil/fire swirl/fire twister is whirlwind induced by a fire and often composed of flame or ash.

Fire Tornado begin with a swirl of smoke or wind and usually occur when the turbulent wind conditions combine with the increasing heat from the fire to create a rotating edgy of air expands into a tornado-like vortex which sucks in combustible gases and burning debris.

Fire whirl is not classified as a tornado because its vortex does not always stretch from the base of the cloud to the ground. Fire whirl is a smaller scale of fire tornado. It is not as strong as fire tornado.

Fire tornadoes are made up of revolving air pockets and a burning core. The temperature of a fire tornado can reach a maximum of about 1,090°C. They are created when a firestorm or wildfire forms its wind system which is turned into a fire vortex resulting in the skinny and tall appearance of the firenado’s core.

Wildfires produce a majority of the most significant fire whirls. These fire tornadoes are created when the wildfire converges with a warm updraft of air. A wildfire can create numerous fire whirls of varying duration, size, and intensity. Fire whirls are generally a few feet wide and can attain a height of about 164 feet. The whirling winds of some fire tornadoes spin at roughly 99 miles per hour and achieve a maximum height of approximately 3,280 feet while persisting for over twenty minutes. Fire tornadoes caused a lot of destruction in a short time.