Rare fire tornado warning issued as California wildfire burns out of control
The Loyalton Fire has scorched more than 8,000 hectares and is only five per cent contained.
When it comes to California's latest wildfire emergency, it doesn't get more apocalyptic than a 'fire tornado' warning, and indeed, more than one of the spinning vortices may have been generated Saturday.
The U.S. National Weather Service office in Reno, Nevada, issued a tornado warning for Lassen County across the border northern California, not far from the site of what is being called the Loyalton fire, which has scorched more than 8,000 hectares and is only five per cent contained, according to ABC.
"A pyrocumulonumbus from the Loyalton Wildfire is capable of producing a fire-induced tornado and outflow winds in excess of 60 mph (96 km/h) was located south of Chilcoot near and to the east of the fire," the weather agency said, adding the phenomenon was likely to remain in rural areas of the county.
Several photographers and travellers managed to capture images and footage of at least one such fire tornado, though there are no reports of any damage, beyond that caused by the fires themselves.
The large fire caused a massive smoke plume that towered almost 10 km above the area, which meteorologists call pyrocumulus. Aside from generating lightning, it was also susceptible to wind shear, which is a difference in wind speed and direction at different altitudes -- the specific trigger for tornadoes.
Aside from those documented on social media, the Washington Post reports doppler radar suggests at least five such fire twisters may have been on the ground in the early afternoon Saturday.
Fire tornadoes, which are generated from storms such as these, are not the same as fire whorls or fire devils, which are formed by rotating columns of hot air rising from wildfires, similar to dust devils.
The National Weather Service says it will dispatch teams to investigate the fire tornadoes.
Fire tornadoes are rare, but have been documented before. In 2018, one tornado associated with the Carr Fire near Redding, California, was responsible for the death of a firefighter and damaged electrical infrastructure. It was given an EF3 rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
Saturday's fire tornado warning was the first of its kind in the U.S., Wendell Hohmann, the Reno meteorologist who issued it, told the Post, adding the deadly 2018 twister was on his mind when he decided to do so.
“We figured we could do a severe [thunderstorm warning], but we decided to do a tornado warning to get [the emergency alert system] and [wireless emergency alerts] to activate," he told the newspaper.
The Loyalton Fire itself has prompted several evacuation orders and alerts, as well as road closures. KTVN reports some 500 firefighters are working to contain it, but that they are not expecting to bring it to heel before September 1st.
