Watch a Fire Tornado Spawn From a Wildfire
This fire tornado formed after a wildfire burst out in central Portugal. Fire tornadoes occur when intense heat causes air to rise and combine with whirling eddies of air. The fire tornado consists of a core and an invisible pocket of rotating air. They can spew embers thousands of feet into the air. Fire tornadoes often form during intense bush fires with heavy fuel loads, under warm, dry conditions. The tornado's core is often one to three feet across but can expand up to tens of feet in the largest cases. All that fire can make for dramatic imagery—and danger to firefighters or anyone in the path of the blaze.
Transcript
This fire tornado formed after a wildfire burst out in central Portugal.
Fire tornadoes occur when intense heat causes air to rise and combine with whirling eddies of air.
The fire tornado consists of a core and an invisible pocket of rotating air.
They can spew embers thousands of feet into the air.
Fire tornadoes often form during intense bush fires with heavy fuel loads, under warm, dry conditions.
The tornado's core is often one to three feet across but can expand up to tens of feet in the largest cases.
All that fire can make for dramatic imagery—and danger to firefighters or anyone in the path of the blaze.
