California’s Park Fire generated suspected fire tornadoes. Here’s how.
Fire tornadoes have been deadly before in California. And they’re as strong as legitimate tornadoes.
On Thursday, in the northeastern region of Chico, California, one or more fire tornadoes are suspected to have occurred in conjunction with the rapidly spreading Park Fire. The fire, which began on Wednesday afternoon when a 42-year-old man from Chico pushed a burning vehicle into a ditch, grew exponentially in just 36 hours to encompass 164,000 acres—a size nearly six times that of Disney World. The fire continues to display extreme behavior.
The weather conditions on Thursday played a crucial role in shaping the fire's smoke plume into a rotating pillar. Doppler radar revealed the formation of tornado-like vortexes within the massive plume, indicating changing winds at low levels. The presence of these vortexes and varying wind directions are telltale signs of a tornado. However, the confirmation of whether tornadoes actually occurred can only be determined through a survey of wind damage after the fire is completely extinguished.
Currently, a red flag warning remains in effect for areas in the northern Sacramento Valley, encompassing Chico, Redding, and Paradise. The combination of low relative humidity levels (10 to 20 percent), intense heat, and gusty winds creates favorable conditions for the spread and ignition of new fires. This increases the possibility of additional fire tornadoes in the Park Fire on Friday afternoon, especially as the sun heats up the lower atmosphere, pushing temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The smoke plume from Thursday's fire reached an impressive height of at least 25,000 feet, behaving like a miniature thunderstorm and responding to changing winds at different atmospheric levels. In rare cases, such as these, exceptionally tall smoke plumes can transform into pyrocumulonimbus clouds, generating their own lightning strikes and potentially igniting new fires.
Time-lapse videos captured by fire cameras at the University of California, San Diego, provide a chilling visualization of Thursday's rotating smoke plume set against an orange and brown sky. Fire tornadoes, while rare, have been documented previously, with the first recorded instance occurring near Canberra, Australia, in 2003. Since then, there have been several notable occurrences in the United States, including the Carr Fire in 2018 and the Loyalton Fire in 2020, where meteorologists issued a fire tornado warning.
As firefighters battle the Park Fire, they must remain vigilant for the potential of additional fire-induced tornadoes, which could spread embers and ignite new fires. The heat is expected to subside slightly over the weekend, with cooler highs in the upper 80s to lower 90s, but it is forecast to return by the middle of next week, pushing temperatures back above the 100-degree mark.
The weather conditions on Thursday played a crucial role in shaping the fire's smoke plume into a rotating pillar. Doppler radar revealed the formation of tornado-like vortexes within the massive plume, indicating changing winds at low levels. The presence of these vortexes and varying wind directions are telltale signs of a tornado. However, the confirmation of whether tornadoes actually occurred can only be determined through a survey of wind damage after the fire is completely extinguished.
Currently, a red flag warning remains in effect for areas in the northern Sacramento Valley, encompassing Chico, Redding, and Paradise. The combination of low relative humidity levels (10 to 20 percent), intense heat, and gusty winds creates favorable conditions for the spread and ignition of new fires. This increases the possibility of additional fire tornadoes in the Park Fire on Friday afternoon, especially as the sun heats up the lower atmosphere, pushing temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The smoke plume from Thursday's fire reached an impressive height of at least 25,000 feet, behaving like a miniature thunderstorm and responding to changing winds at different atmospheric levels. In rare cases, such as these, exceptionally tall smoke plumes can transform into pyrocumulonimbus clouds, generating their own lightning strikes and potentially igniting new fires.
Time-lapse videos captured by fire cameras at the University of California, San Diego, provide a chilling visualization of Thursday's rotating smoke plume set against an orange and brown sky. Fire tornadoes, while rare, have been documented previously, with the first recorded instance occurring near Canberra, Australia, in 2003. Since then, there have been several notable occurrences in the United States, including the Carr Fire in 2018 and the Loyalton Fire in 2020, where meteorologists issued a fire tornado warning.
As firefighters battle the Park Fire, they must remain vigilant for the potential of additional fire-induced tornadoes, which could spread embers and ignite new fires. The heat is expected to subside slightly over the weekend, with cooler highs in the upper 80s to lower 90s, but it is forecast to return by the middle of next week, pushing temperatures back above the 100-degree mark.