Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

Alaskan 'Firenado' Forms As Part Of Huge Tetlin Junction Fire

By Ryan Grenoble
Posted: 08/20/2013 4:50 pm EDT

What's scarier than a sharknado? A firenado -- because it actually exists.

More accurately known as a "fire whirl [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_whirl ]" or sometimes a "fire tornado [ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/09/pictures/120920-fire-tornadoes-vortex-firenadoes-devils-science-weather/ ]," footage of a particularly violent one in Alaska has caught the Internet's attention.

According to the video's uploader, Douglas Burts, the footage [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh67J4TNPKE (above, as embedded)] is of Alaska's Tetlin Junction Fire. The clip, captured on Aug. 16, was filmed from a plane window, around 1,900 feet above the blaze. A report filed the next day noted the fire's 5,000-acre plume had "tornado strength" winds and several fire whirls [ http://fire.ak.blm.gov/content/news/flash/8-17-13_Moon_Complex_Update.pdf ].

The fire is believed to have been started on June 25 by a lightning strike. As of Aug. 19, the Tetlin Junction Ridge Fire had grown to 76,548 acres in size [ http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3459/ ] and was 50 percent contained.

National Geographic reports fire tornados are a rarely documented phenomenon, though they are believed to occur somewhat frequently.

Watch the Alaskan 'firenado' in the video above -- skip to 1:34 to see it -- and learn how fire tornadoes occur by watching the clip below.

[video embedded]

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/alaskan-firenado_n_3786387.html [with comments]

---

(linked in):

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=36954447 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63581494 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=73104890 and preceding (and any future following)

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=81622380 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=83299739 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86194780 and preceding (and any future following)

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=89297049 and following;
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=89688274 and preceding (and any future following)

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=90507814 and preceding (and any future following)

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=91202603 (and preceding and any future following)