Pyrotornadogenesis

This incredible video was shared by an ABC News affiliate in California earlier this year during the Carr Fire, which hammered the community of Redding, California during one of many devastating wildfires in that state this year. During many intense wildfires, small “fire tornadoes” or “Fire whirls” are observed when rapidly rising hot air begins rotating in a column. Here’s one video I shared of one a few years ago: https://tmblr.co/Zyv2Js2Av4RcN. However, there’s a huge difference between the thin column of fire in that video and what happened during the Carr Fire. The Carr Fire produced a huge vertical column, with winds comparable to an F3 tornado. A new study of the data collected during this event suggests that in fact it was something very different from a simple fire whirl. It was in fact a pyrotornado, produced by the same type of cloud dynamics and wind shear that give rise to regular tornadoes. This event is only the 2nd on record like it – the first occurred during a firestorm in New South Wales, Australia, in 2003.

Most fire whirls are fairly thin columns of hot gas, they rotate as they rise because of angular momentum being conserved in the thin column of rising gas, but they are confined to layers of air near the surface. In this case, this fire set up a full weather system, which created properties in the whole atmosphere much more similar to a tornado.

When this fire tornado began, air was rising rapidly above the area, triggering the formation of clouds known as pyrocumulonimbus clouds. These clouds are like thunderstorm clouds – high, towering, containing rising air and forming ice crystals – but they are triggered by hot air rising above fires. In this case, the forming pyrocumulonimbus cloud took a small fire whirl and stretched it out vertically into a column just like a normal tornado. It rose to a height of 12 kilometers (over 6 miles) above the surface within about 15 minutes of it first being detected, and its rotation was fed by the same sort of shearing winds at the edge of the cloud that feed tornadoes from thunderstorms.

The combination of shearing winds and a thunderstorm cloud forming created this spectacular vortex, which tore through the city of Redding as a burning column in the air. This fire tornado occurred after a multi year drought was followed by one record wet season and another record dry season – leading to lots of growth of vegetation in the record wet year and a huge amount of burnable vegetation when it dried out. That volatile mix combined with a specific set of weather conditions to trigger this event – by studying the radar signatures of pyrotornadogenesis in Redding, weather forecasters may be able to recognize when those ingredients are present in the future.

-JBB

Video source: https://twitter.com/abc10/status/1022862397780852739?lang=en https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1fV5Uq_b4A

I wasn’t intending to post any photos about the California wildfires today, limiting myself to maybe an update. But I saw all sorts of gut-wrenching photos today in the LA Times and elsewhere, and decided I had to share them. I can’t imagine the pain, anguish and fear being experienced by the thousands of people out west who are or were in the middle of these monsters.

All these photos are from today’s LA Times.

Crystal Easter comforts her dogs in Spring Valley as they flee a wildfire. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)

The Ranch fire spots out ahead of the main fire in Spring Valley, burning two homes. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)

Evacuees from Lucerne, from left, Ken Bennett with Ember Reynolds, 8, and Lisa Reynolds watch the sunset as smoke from the Ranch fire rises at Austin Park Beach in California's Clearlake with Mt. Konocti in the background. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)

A tree burns from the inside during the Ranch fire in Clearlake Oaks. (Josh Edelson / Associated Press)

A fire truck passes a vineyard while battling the Ranch Fire, part of the Mendocino Complex Fire, near Clearlake Oaks. (NOAH BERGER / AFP/Getty Images)

Flames erupt from the River fire near Scott's Valley Road in Lake County. (Mark McKenna / TNS)

A deer flees as the Ranch fire tears down New Long Valley Road near Clearlake Oaks on Saturday. (Noah Berger / AFP/Getty Images)

The image of the day from NASA’s Earth Observatory shows gusting plumes of smoke veiling the western United States. Two hundred thousand acres are on fire in California, fuelled by strong winds and unrelenting hot, dry conditions. The Carr Fire, in Redding, a hundred and sixty miles north of Sacramento, has incinerated over a thousand structures, most of them people’s homes. Forty thousand people have been evacuated, and six have died. The fire is so large—more than a hundred and ten thousand acres—that it has created its own weather system, making it difficult for firefighters to predict what it will do next.“We have seen extremely explosive fire behavior on this particular fire,” Chris Anthony, a division chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said. “But it’s not unique anymore to what we are seeing on fires in California.” Climate change is slow until it’s terrifyingly fast.

Yesterday morning, there were evacuation suggestions, nothing mandatory, for the area around my neighborhood. We ignored them, because this happens every year and we never have to evacuate. 

We foolishly went grocery shopping and to the mall yesterday afternoon. We should’ve been packing, but we assumed that nothing was going to happen. 

We watched the smoke, laughing and taking pictures. 

After dinner, at around 7pm, my family was watching tv when the power cut out. That’s when we knew we were screwed. Our neighbor ran up and knocked on our door, yelling that we only had ten minutes to get out. 

We scrambled to pack all our legal documents and important papers, and grabbed some clothes. We loaded up all three cars. My big dog went in with my mom and my sister, and the little dog rode with me. My dad took most of our stuff in the SUV. 

My dad ran back into the house to do a once over, when the fire erupted down the street. I could see swirling flames, fifty feet tall, eating my neighbor’s house. Screaming for my dad, we gunned it out of there. Alone in my car, I began screaming, terrified for my life. I inhaled smoke and ash through my car vents and nearly threw up, I was coughing so hard. After I screamed, I began keening like a wounded animal, and I had no control over it. I was so terrified. 

We all made it out, but we were stuck in insane traffic. People were driving down the wrong side of the road, going way too fast and cutting people off dangerously. I’m surprised I didn’t get rear ended. I didn’t know where my mom was, I didn’t know where my dad was. There was road work on the main hill, and the detour was jammed. They took down the roadblocks, and we drove down the hill. 

I was right behind my mom at the base of the hill, until a big truck with a trailer cut me off, nearly t boning me. Afraid and alone, I called my mom. We couldn’t go to my grandparents’ house the usual way, because the road was blocked off, and I needed help getting there. 

When we finally got to my grandparents’ house, we began to settle in. It was about 8pm. However, three hours later, we had to evacuate again. It took us so long to get out of there. We called everyone we knew in a panic, and finally found a place to stay. 

It has been declared a state of emergency, and the national guard is on their way. It’s made national headlines. 

This morning, our neighbor informed us that he broke into the neighborhood, and at this point, the house still stands. 

The wind will pick up tonight, and there is no telling what will happen. 

My city is burning. I am homeless. 

Charred tree trunks are stacked in the yard of the Trinity River Lumber Company in Weaverville, California, having been transported from the firefighting area of the nearby Carr Fire. Smoke still hangs noticeably in the air, and the mountain of felled trees is continually sprayed with water to prevent smoldering trees from bursting into flame.

Hello, a post again that isn’t salty. This is a post to links on how to help the victims of the Californian wildfires going on right now and possibly in the future. We have Fire Seasons that range usually from July to December. In the past 3 years or so, we have had devastating fires that have rampaged through cities and destroyed so many homes, and right now it’s happening again in Redding and possibly Pawnee. Please consider donating! If you are localized, please look into how you can donate more than just money but supplies as well. Or if you are generous enough, please try to help temporary house evacuees, especially those who have possibly lost their house. From past experience from the Tubbs and Atlas fire, Hotels will try to gut prices by making rooms priced high.

https://www.ncoinc.org/2017-fires/ - This is to help out with the Pawnee Fire

https://deloro.salvationarmy.org/del_oro/northern-california-wildfires - Link to the Salvation Army for any of the Californian Wildfires

https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation - Link to the Red Cross that helps victims of any of the wildfires

http://www.cafoodbanks.org/find-food-bank - For the official Californian Food Bank

https://www.norcalunitedway.org/CARRfire - This is to help out with the Carr Fire in Redding

http://www.shastarcf.org/funds/cdrf - This is to help out with the fires west of Redding

https://www.gofundme.com/cause/carr-fire - GoFundMe for the Carr Fire in Redding

https://www.gofundme.com/tcb-2018-carr-fire-fund/donate - A second GoFundMe for the Carr Fire in Redding