A chance to study vortices in a smoke plume

Wall Fire time-lapse

Above: screenshot from the Wall Fire time-lapse video below.

This time-lapse video of the Wall Fire condenses one hour of high intensity fire behavior into a one minute video. It was photographed using the camera system operated by the Nevada Seismological Lab between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. on July 8, 2017, the day after the fire started. Since then it has burned 5,800 acres and destroyed 41 homes and 55 other structures southeast of Oroville, California.

If you are interested in wildland fire behavior, you may be fascinated by the occasionally counter-rotating as well as single horizontal and vertical vortices as the fire rapidly spreads across the landscape.

This phenomenon is important to firefighters because of the extreme fire behavior that can put personnel in immediate danger.

If you want to read more about horizontal vortices, here are the results of a quick Google search. One of the links leads to an interesting paper titled Three Types of Horizontal Vortices Observed in Wildland Mass and Crown Fires, by Donald A. Haines and Mahlon C. Smith.

Here is a copy of their abstract (click it to see a larger version):

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Kelly.
Typos or errors, report them HERE.

Typos, let us know HERE, and specify which article. Please read the commenting rules before you post a comment.

Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.