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Researchers Scientifically Prove the Existence of the Fire Tornado

Nov. 19, 2012 11:29am Liz Klimas

TheBlaze has been reporting a lot lately about the footage of a “fire tornado” and the filmmaker who captured it in Australia, but as we’ve been telling you, it wasn’t a true tornado in a scientific sense.

Today though scientists have officially documented the first actual fire tornado, also seen in the land down under. The “firenado” caught on film by Chris Tangey with Alice Springs Film and Television in September of this year was anatomically more like a fire whirl. What was observed through scientific measurements by Canberra researchers of the devastating wildfires in 2003 though was an actual flaming tornado.

Researchers Document First Scientific Fire Tornado From 2003 Australia Fires

Fire tornado seen in 2003. (Photo: Sydney Morning Herald)

ABC out of Australia has more from the research lead Rick McRae about the data:

“The one that we looked at showed that as it approached the edge of Canberra, its basal diameter was nearly half a kilometre, and the damage indicates that the horizontal wind speeds around it were in excess of 250 kilometres per hour [about 155 mph],” he said.

“There is also a vertical wind in it at 150 kph [93 mph].”

He says tornadoes are different to the whirls often associated with fires.

“The fire whirl is attached to the hot ground,” he said.

“A fire tornado, like a true tornado, is attached to the underside of a thunderstorm.”

The Sydney Morning Herald reported McRae explaining further that the technical term for a fire’s ability to produce a tornado is called pyro-tornadogenesis. Before this study, it was only speculated that powerful fires could do this.

McRae said gathering this information will give the researchers the ability to recreate its behavior, which could eventually shed light on how emergency responders should handle brushfires and even alter building codes.

The research of this natural phenomenon was published in the journal Natural Hazards.

Watch this report regarding the new scientific finding:

This story has been updated to correct that Tangey filmed his “fire tornado” in Australia not New Zealand.

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Comments (13)

Steev
Posted on November 19, 2012 at 2:05pm
A fire produces its own sustainability and growth as long as there is a sufficient amount of fuel and oxegyn within it direct grasp [ it is all about moving air and the pressure void that is created by the movement of such air ] there must have been some sort of ligtweight and abundant fuel source nearby – the fuelsource also would have had to be longer in burn time than just combustible. That is something i learned in fire science training 30 years ago ( so the phenomenon has been around for a long time ).Although many people had claimed to have seen it nobody had ever been able to photograph it for public consumption, if video cameras had been as rampant as they are today i am sure we would see a flame-nado ( my name for it ) as commonplace. the physics of it are relatively simple – so i wouldn’t think it would be a hard thing to duplicate.

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- THX-1138
  Posted on November 19, 2012 at 5:10pm
  Hmm, just like Government and Money….
  
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crystalsky
Posted on November 19, 2012 at 1:25pm
In Revelation it speaks of the false prophet being allowed to make fire come from the sky.
Not saying this is it yet but it is just showing you the capacity of the truth of what the bible says.
I am a christian I do not know what hour or time the rapture will take place. but this shows you what will be happening in the tribulation only by a false prophet. i will not know who it will be.
But they will deceive many.
God is not a liar dust off your old bibles or check out the prophecy in the bible so you might believe God is not a liar. He is Real.
Check out perry stone or jack van impe

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TheCalvinistPastor
Posted on November 19, 2012 at 12:55pm
I have a feeling “The Blaze” posted this story just to snub Al Gore :) lol

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- tj1961
  Posted on November 19, 2012 at 1:56pm
  Sure ! I would!
  
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COFemale
Posted on November 19, 2012 at 12:02pm
This is what happened to Mtn Shadows subdivision in Colorado Springs. Thunderstorms moved through that ramped up winds to over 60 mph hour directly over the wildfire and it pushed the fire over the ridge down into the homes. This is why so many homes caught fire and randomly. There are pictures, but at the time if you are not familiar with rotating vertical plumes you would not recognize this as such. They are extremely dangerous and you can’t prevent them.

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- Small_Al
  Posted on November 19, 2012 at 12:17pm
  Completely frightening. Read fresh political commentary at: http://smallcraftadvisorychronicles.blogspot.com
  
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- corbecket
  Posted on November 19, 2012 at 1:10pm
  What happened at Mt. Shadows wasn’t caused by a “fire tornado”. Oddly, the mayhem commenced when the thunderstorm began to dissipate. Instead of sucking up hot air, the storm lost its lift and the relatively cool air fell down towards the ground. It was somewhat like a downburst, which caused the strong surface winds, pushing the fire over the ridge line. It happened fast, but most folks had been alerted for days to the need of removing themselves quickly (which they did).
  
  I don’t think it had anything to do with a “fire tornado” (don’t you love how Aussies have to name everything?). There were plenty of “fire whirls” in that fire. COS was lucky it didn’t lose more folks than they did.
  
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BlackCrow
Posted on November 19, 2012 at 11:58am
Do a Google search on “fire whirl”. The fire science people call them whirls not tornadoes. The causes and effects have been observed and studied to death, there are many published papers available on the net but the phenomenon is known as a fire WHIRL.

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- COFemale
  Posted on November 19, 2012 at 12:03pm
  Actually they are called “rotating vertical plumes”. This comes from a Fire Training video produced by real firemen.
  
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- Firefight
  Posted on November 19, 2012 at 1:08pm
  What you’re referring to is a fire that is on the ground that ignites gasses as they rise. This is different because not only the wind speeds but because the clouds of gasses in the sky have ignited (kind of like a self contained flashover where the super heated gasses have reached their ignition point) and the sky would literally look like it was on fire. When the “fire tornado” forms it can jump just like any other tornado and burns independently of a ground source of ignition. I might be wrong but that is my understanding of it.
  
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truthbased
Posted on November 19, 2012 at 11:54am
cool but scary

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scherzophrenic
Posted on November 19, 2012 at 11:48am
There were stories of fire tornadoes that happened during the carpet bombing of Dresden.

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