Rare ‘firenado’ spotted in California amid extreme heat and high winds



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A rare “firenado” tore through California near the Nevada border amid extreme heat and high winds in the area, according to a report.

The extreme weather phenomenon was spotted on Saturday afternoon near the Loyalton fire, which started in the Tahoe National Forest, NBC News reported.

Firenadoes are triggered when a burst of hot air blows through the fire at a certain angle, producing plumes that resemble a tornado, Fox News reported.

On Saturday, the National Weather Service’s office in Reno warned of fires that exhibited “extremely dangerous burning behavior”, with the potential for column rotation and fire vortices.

“The big concern is that the behavior of the fire is extremely erratic,” John Mittelstadt, meteorologist at the National Weather Service, told the newspaper.

“For any of the firefighters working on a side of the fire, all of a sudden, there’s no way to predict what the winds are going to do or how bad they are going to be.”

The fire near Loyalton that started on Saturday burned more than 3,000 acres – with just 5% contained the same evening, officials said.

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