The Lake Fire in California spawned a fire tornado on August 12 while the blaze grew to more than 10,000 acres in size. You can see videos of the firenado and learn more below.
The Lake Fire Spawned an Impressive Firenado
This video below was shared by Bill Melugin of Fox Los Angeles. He wrote on Twitter: “Fire tornado. Insane winds just picked up. Mass evacuations everyone is getting out of here.”
In the video, you can see winds picking up, helping the fire grow, along with a fire tornado emerging from the blaze.
Veronica Miracle of ABC 7 also recorded a video of the firenado, which you can see in the second embedded video below. She wrote: “I have never seen anything like this. The #LakeFire is moving fast toward Lake Hughes. It created a fire tornado on this hill and it’s sucking everything inside.”
She tweeted that you could hear the roar of the flames coming near where they were reporting on the fire. She then shared this video with a closeup of the fire tornado, which is the second video in the tweets below. She wrote: “Shows the power of the #LakeFire. It is moving fast down Pine Canyon Road toward Lake Hughes.”
The Lake Fire has already grown to 10,000 acres in size, Los Angeles Daily News reported. The fire started in the Lake Hughes region around 3:30 p.m. and exploded in size. In just a few hours it was 10,000 acres already and 0% contained. About 150 homes were part of a mandatory evacuation for Lake Hughes residents.
LA County Sheriff’s Department warned that the fire had crossed Pine Canyon Road and was moving northeasterly, so additional evacuations had to be put into place.
****#LakeFire has crossed Pine Canyon Road and is moving in a north easterly direction**** Extreme Fire Behavior***
***Addt’l evacuations for the area of:
East of Old Ridge Route, w/o 3 Point, n/o Pine Cyn Rd, s/o Highway 138****
The fire can be seen in Los Angeles County and in Venice Beach. Nearby brush is helping to fuel the fire’s growth. Teams will be working on the fire throughout the night.
Many Fire Tornados Have Been Caught on Video Over the Years
The Carr Fire in 2018 also created a fire tornado.
In case you’re curious, here’s a video about extreme fire behavior on the 2018 Carr Fire in Redding.
The Carr Fire’s fire tornado was spawned on July 26, 2018, Science News for Students shared.
A fire in California in 2014 also had a reported firenado.
Folks on twitter asking me if the fire tornado in San Marcos is real. yes, it’s real. Here’s #photo of it forming http://t.co/fSy3OD7DJT
A firenado was also reported in 2003 after a Jim Beam factory was struck by lightning. To create the firenado, the Jim Beam factory was first struck by lightning and spilled 800,00 gallons of bourbon into a nearby lake, WCPO reported.
UCSB Geography reported that a fire tornado is created when a fire “acquires a vertical vorticity and forms a whirl, or a tornado-like vertically oriented rotating column of air.” Fire tornadoes are typically created by wildfires when a warm updraft converges with a wildfire. They can be a few meters wide and 10 to 50 meters tall, and typically only last for a few minutes. But some can contain very strong winds and in rare occasions, last as long as 20 minutes.
WeatherNation reported that these are sometimes created when turbulent winds combine with rising heat and fire. A firenado video, posted below, happened in Idaho.
ABC News reported on the firenado below, which was caught on video in the Australian outback.
ABC News explained that when ground level wind comes in contact with warm rising air, it can be propelled upward, creating a firenado. It is rare for these firenadoes to last longer than a few minutes.
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