[ad_1]
The rare and fiery tornado was spotted near a fire in California on Saturday. The National Weather Service’s office issued a tornado warning for a pyrocumulonimbus cloud formed by the Loyalton fire, saying it was “capable of producing a tornado caused by the fire and output winds in excess of 60 mph”, CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said.
A cloud of pyrocumulonimbus forms over intense rising heat, usually caused by a fire or volcano. Fire tornadoes are created when the rising heat of a fire attracts smoke, fire and dirt, creating a spinning vortex above the blaze, Brink said.
Fire tornadoes can be massive and deadly. In 2018, one of them claimed the lives of a firefighter and a bulldozer driver battling the Carr fire. When the National Meteorological Service studied the damage on this firenado, it determined it was equivalent to an EF-3 tornado with winds over 143 mph.
Officials in California, Oregon and Colorado are grappling with a series of wildfires that have collectively burned down more than 100,000 acres – and things could get worse with intense heat descending over much of the states -United.
The Loyalton fire burned 20,000 acres and was 5% contained by early Sunday morning. It burns east of the town of Loyalton.
[ad_2]
Source link