No. 240 - Fire Tornado

Today a Facebook friend posted this TV footage showing how strong winds can create a fire tornado. I am a fan of extreme weather. It can be quite awe-inspiring to witness the things the Earth can do on its own. But I had never seen, or heard of, this before. At least not in real life.

In the world of Pokemon there is a move used by the Fire-types, such as Charizard, Ninetales, and Arcanine, called Fire Spin. The character opens its mouth and a spiraling flame is released at the opponent, trapping and burning it in a fiery tornado. Such are the things I learn from my kids.

I learned that a fire tornado, also called a fire whirl or a fire devil, is a rare phenomenon in which a fire, under certain conditions (depending on air temperature and currents), acquires a vertical vorticity and forms a whirl, or a tornado-like vertically oriented rotating column of air.

Most fire whirls are between 30 and 200 feet tall and under 10 feet wide. They generally last no more than a few minutes, but some have lasted as long as 20 minutes. These whirls are extraordinarily dangerous. In the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake in Japan, a fire whirl was created in a massive firestorm. The whirl alone killed 38,000 people who were packed into an open space in the Former Army Clothing Depot during the earthquake.