Pyrotornadoes

[bjdeming]

Uh..."pyro-meso"? This is four hours of the Caldor Fire on the 17th; per current reports today, it's growing and 0% contained. Wonder if there will be pyrotornado warnings on this.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Uh..."pyro-meso"? This is four hours of the Caldor Fire on the 17th; per current reports today, it's growing and 0% contained. Wonder if there will be pyrotornado warnings on this.

The rotation in it never produced a tornado.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

 

[bjdeming]

Meanwhile, out west...

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

The March 6, 2017 Southern Plains wildfire outbreak is a completely overshadowed and basically forgotten event despite the extent of devastation that occurred. 7 people were killed, 1.2 million acres burned, and at least 87 structures were destroyed. Some fires ran 40+ miles in only 5 hours. In addition, the fires generated at least 2 fire vortices that were visible on radar, the only such case of that occurring on the plains that I know of. One had a rotational velocity of 43.7 kts while the 2nd one had a rotational velocity of 38.4 kts. This Vrot is usually associated with EF1-EF2 tornadoes.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

I found footage of the Tennant Fire pyro-tornado from this year.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

 

[gregassagraf]

One incredible fire tornado captured on camera all year:


Fire tornado in a burning cane field, near Colômbia-SP, Brazil.

 

[buckeye05]

That’s amazing. That’s one of the largest and most well defined pyro tornadoes I’ve ever seen.

 

[gregassagraf]

That’s amazing. That’s one of the largest and most well defined pyro tornadoes I’ve ever seen.

It’s interesting that this pyro tornado had features so many well defined features: suction vortices, collar cloud, etc.

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

That’s amazing. That’s one of the largest and most well defined pyro tornadoes I’ve ever seen.

I wonder if stuff like this happens more often then we think but only now is it being readily documented. I also wonder if the increase in wildfires due to climate change is also a factor...

 

[buckeye05]

I wonder if stuff like this happens more often then we think but only now is it being readily documented. I also wonder if the increase in wildfires due to climate change is also a factor...

I think one of the craziest things about that video is the multiple-vortex structure. Never seen anything like that with a pyro tornado.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Apparent pyro tornado near Weston, Oregon yesterday.
Edit: Actually, this might have been a regular tornado that just happened to be near a wildfire. I'm not completely sure either way.

There were no major wildfires in Oregon recently, that was a tornado from 2018 that passed near a wildfire in Colorado. It was not related to a pyrocumulonimbus so it is not a pyrotornado.

 

[buckeye05]

Yup you're right. I saw something about wildfire damage in the SPC report and put two and two together. I'll get rid of the post.

 

[bjdeming]

Speaking of pyrocumulonimbus clouds, there are some incredible photos of this New Mexico fire, but AFAIK, no pyrotornado reports yet. I couldn't find any, anyway, but this seems a likely candidate for spawning one -- or does mountainous terrain inhibit those? (I know it doesn't for tornadoes).

Northern NM is very hilly (lived in ABQ for a couple of years back in the 80s).

 

[bjdeming]

France:

 

[bjdeming]

A day late on this anniversary, but still: the nightmare scenario of a natural pyrotornado going through a major city happened in 1923, per that link.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

Indonesia really had a large pyrotornado back in 2019

 

[bjdeming]

The Weather Channel has this video of a fire whirl near "a volcano" in Indonesia. It is a fire whirl, not volcanic in origin.

The volcano might be almost anywhere on volcano-studded Java, which is a tinderbox right now at the end of a very dry dry season, but because a flare is mentioned, it's probably Bromo, per this news story (Indonesian, but with video; just click "x" in upper right if an ad appears).

Here's more video and info on the fire, which Twitter can translate (the tweet's text, anyway, and yes, there is a Teletubbies Hill in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park--Indonesians are amazing).

PS: This volcanic group is gorgeous, and very active.

 

[Ivanthetornadoenthusiast]

The Weather Channel has this video of a fire whirl near "a volcano" in Indonesia. It is a fire whirl, not volcanic in origin.

The volcano might be almost anywhere on volcano-studded Java, which is a tinderbox right now at the end of a very dry dry season, but because a flare is mentioned, it's probably Bromo, per this news story (Indonesian, but with video; just click "x" in upper right if an ad appears).

Here's more video and info on the fire, which Twitter can translate (the tweet's text, anyway, and yes, there is a Teletubbies Hill in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park--Indonesians are amazing).

PS: This volcanic group is gorgeous, and very active.

The fire in question was due to someone using a flare for a pre-wedding event in the Bromo volcanic field.

BMKG Juanda dubbed this event as "dust devil"