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Pyrotornadoes

buckeye05

buckeye05

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WhirlingWx said:
Anybody have thoughts to share on this? I'm no expert on how to differentiate wind from burn damage (the Facebook link has more pics as well).

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I’d infer that the heat + the wind would cause the asphalt to peel away easier than in a “normal” tornado. With that said, this is the first example of pavement scouring from a fire tornado that I’ve seen.
 
MNTornadoGuy

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buckeye05 said:
I’d infer that the heat + the wind would cause the asphalt to peel away easier than in a “normal” tornado. With that said, this is the first example of pavement scouring from a fire tornado that I’ve seen.
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The fire doesn’t seem to have been that intense in that area as most of the nearby trees still have green leaves though it is likely that heat still played a role in it but it probably wasn’t that significant.
 
buckeye05

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MNTornadoGuy said:
The fire tornado also produced some more impressive contextual damage even with help from the heat of the fire. Numerous trees were debarked, intense ground scouring occurred, and there was a mass >80% blowdown of trees.




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Wow! That is some seriously impressive contextual damage. We’re looking at significant ground and pavement scouring, shredding of low-lying shrubbery, plus severe debarking of trees. Honestly, it all seems to point to a violent tornado, but I’m not sure considering heat was involved to some extent. Though is it possible that EF4 level winds occurred?

I’ve noticed that other fire tornadoes, namely the Carr Fire/Redding, CA EF3, have produced deep ground scouring with significant removal of topsoil. Eiler fire tornado too. It seems like pyro-tornadoes tend to scour deeper than typical supercell tornadoes. Any idea why this is?
 
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MNTornadoGuy

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buckeye05 said:
Wow! That is some seriously impressive contextual damage. We’re looking at significant ground and pavement scouring, shredding of low-lying shrubbery, plus severe debarking of trees. Honestly, it all seems to point to a violent tornado, but I’m not sure considering heat was involved to some extent. Though is it possible that EF4 level winds occurred?

I’ve noticed that other fire tornadoes, namely the Carr Fire/Redding, CA EF3, have produced deep ground scouring with significant removal of topsoil. Eiler fire tornado too. It seems like pyro-tornadoes tend to scour deeper than typical supercell tornadoes. Any idea why this is?
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Probably just because those three pyrotornadoes were intense, ground scouring and other intense contextual damage is extremely rare among pyrotornadoes just as with regular tornadoes. I have not found any other cases besides those three tornadoes.
 
bjdeming

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MNTornadoGuy said:
The fire tornado also produced some more impressive contextual damage even with help from the heat of the fire. Numerous trees were debarked, intense ground scouring occurred, and there was a mass >80% blowdown of trees.




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Radar image (this is an excellent Twitter account for weather-oriented views of fires in the West BTW) -- read the whole thread, where he speculates on possible damage, too.
 
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