Blazing ... fire tornado in Alice Springs, Australia Chris Tangey / SWNS.com A SNAPPER was left in a whirl when he witnessed one of nature’s rarest phenomenons – a FIRE tornado. Filmmaker Chris Tangey caught the flaming twister on camera as he scouted out movie locations in Alice Springs, Australia. The terrifying fire swirl – also known as a fire devil — is caused when warm air comes into contact with, or causes, a fire on the ground. In a twist ... fire tornado Chris Tangey / SWNS.com Chris, 52, said: “The weather was perfectly still and it was an entirely uneventful day. “Then the next thing a man is yelling, ‘What the hell is that?’ and I turned around and saw a 30-metre fire tornado. “I was about 300 metres away and there was no wind but the tornado sounded like a fighter jet. My jaw just dropped.” Mesmerising ... the tornado lasted 40 minutes Chris Tangey / SWNS.com Although fire whirls are known to last for only a couple of minutes, Chris found himself mesmerised by the dangerous tornado for more than 40 MINUTES. Chris said: “I’ve been shooting in the outback for 23 years and I have never seen anything like it. We’ve heard about them but they’re never seen. “The whole experience was staggering and the length and variety were astonishing.” Although they are rare, these spectacles are extremely dangerous. In 1923, a fire whirl emerged during Japan’s Great Kanto Earthquake and killed 38,000 people in just 15 minutes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_whirl Quote.... A fire whirl, colloquially fire devil or fire tornado, is a phenomenon—rarely captured on camera—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. Fire whirls may be whirlwinds separated from the flames, either within the burn area or outside it, or a vortex of flame, itself. An extreme example is the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake in Japan which ignited a large city-sized firestorm and produced a gigantic fire whirl that killed 38,000 in fifteen minutes in the Hifukusho-Ato region of Tokyo.[1]
That's incredible! Says in the article that they can be STARTED by warm air touching the ground. I didn't know that. I thought there had to already be a fire. And...wow!...that one in Japan had to be an astounding monster! Cool article find, Tedy.
