Fire Tornados EXIST!

On Wednesday, August 25, 2010, there was a fire tornado in Brazil that was caught on video. It was due to a combination of strong winds and fires. These types of tornados are rare and it was amazing that this fire tornado was caught on tape. The flame was said to be a few yards high and the fact that rain hasn’t been seen in the area in three months, proves how dangerous fire and dry winds can be.


This relates to science concepts as Mother Nature does her damage. According to the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), “In order for one to exist, there must be an external source of organized angular momentum that products large swirl velocity components as air is entrained into the fire plume. The vertical acceleration induced by the buoyancy generates strain fields which stretch out the flames as they wrap around the nominal plume centerline. Fire whirls are known to increase substantially the danger of naturally occurring or post-disaster fires.” The physics of this doesn’t escape a scientist when such a thing can result from only flames and winds.

This is important because surely people would want to learn more about tornados that can kill them. The fact that this is a “rare phenomenon,” as the Huffington Post has said, explains that everyone should know about this because it only happens once in awhile.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/25/brazil-fire-tornado-video_n_693803.html