A collection of reports of fire whirls and fire tornadoes

Fire whirl in Australia, filmed by Chris Tangey

Fire tornadoes, firenadoes, or fire whirls have gotten a lot of notice in the press in the last week or so, primarily because several were filmed on the fires in San Diego County. The terms are being used rather loosely, but Rick McRae, a researcher in Australia, says a fire tornado is attached to the underside of a thunderstorm while a fire whirl remains attached to the ground.

Regardless, they are fascinating to watch.

Here are some links to reports we have had on Wildfire Today about the phenomenon:

An honest to Pete fire tornado in Australia that traveled for miles across the landscape with F2 velocity winds in excess of 250 kilometres per hour. Some structures were damaged. The link to a video is no longer working, but there are links to scientific data about the event.
Some firefighters were injured when they were overrun by a large fire whirl in 1989.
A very, very large fire whirl in Alaska captured on video.
A very impressive video of hundreds of tumbleweeds swirling around a fire whirl over a prescribed fire March 14 at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver, Colorado.
Researchers create a fire whirl in a Maryland lab; and another one in the U.S. Forest Service Fire Lab in Missoula.
Video of a fire whirl in Spain.
CNN video of a fire whirl in Hawaii.
We did not post it on Wildfire Today, but the Daily Beast created a mashup of many fire whirls.
Still photos of a fire whirl or dust devil over a fire in North Dakota.
It is not fire related (as far as we know!), but the tracks of dust devils on Mars are very interesting.

And one of the best videos of a large fire whirl was shot by Chris Tangey of Alice Springs Film and Television while he was scouting locations near Curtin Springs station in Australia. We have more details about it at the link above, but it is embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

Outback firenado-Australia from chris tangey on Vimeo.

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. View all posts by Bill Gabbert

3 thoughts on “A collection of reports of fire whirls and fire tornadoes”

Bill, any recollection of a training video containing footage of a large fire whirl that crossed a dry lake bed in Colorado, where local townspeople were using it as a safety zone for their vehicles and belongings and such? If I remember right, the video showed 10 – 12″ trees on that were twisted off, and campers and boat trailers were tossed around in the middle of the dry lake bed.