As if they aren’t already facing enough, firefighters in California also could encounter fire tornadoes—a rare but dangerous phenomenon in which wildfires create their own weather.
The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” in which any new fire could explode in size. The advisory, which runs into Wednesday, didn’t mention tornadoes, but meteorologist Todd Hall said they’re possible given the extreme conditions.
A look at fire tornados:
What is a Fire Tornado?
Fire whirl, fire devil, fire tornado, or even firenado—scientists, firefighters, and regular folks use multiple terms to describe similar phenomena, and they don’t always agree on what’s what. Some say fire whirls are formed only by heat, while fire tornados involve clouds generated by the fire itself….