Canyon Fire Entrapment

I quite distinctly remember the Canyon Fire on the post of Vandenberg AFB last year for a number of reasons. These reasons include the fact it started and largely burned in Honda Canyon, the namesake of another fire there in 1977 which, driven by Santa Ana Winds, killed four people including the base commander and base fire chief. Read more about it HERE. I also remember last year's fire because it delayed the launch of  WorldView-4 earth observation satellite from the base's space launch complex. I also remember it for the fact it seemed to generate some of the most awesometacular pyrocumulus clouds seen on a wildfire on the Central Coast since the 1993 Marre Fire which also featured a firefighter entrapment incident sans casualties. There was even a memorable fire-related but not fire-caused fatality as Ventura County Fire Department engineer Ryan Osler was killed in the rollover of a VCFD water tender en route to the fire traveling on Highway 246 near Lompoc, CA. However, I only vaguely remember there was an entrapment situation on the Canyon Fire last year which caused some injuries but no deaths but was certainly a close call. Today I noticed a link to this on Twitter which appears to have been published a few weeks ago. This short video makes for a quite compelling post-incident analysis with some rather dramatic wildfire videography.

Rocky Mountain Whirlwind ~ Firewhirl

I have thoroughly enjoyed this video sequence since I first watched it earlier this year. However, I did not share it here as I have been waiting for a version of it that met my standards. That is to say, what has been out there has either been the extended version accompanied by obnoxious and inappropriate music or too short-assed versions or versions with poorer video definition. I give up: this is the best I can find and I no longer wish to wait. Therefore, here you go: the best version I can find in the context of my standards. Please pardon the poor video quality.

Eiler Fire Tornado

I was blown away seeing this for the first just a short time ago thanks to new Twitter follower Kelli Myers. As those of you know who follow this blog I have a special thing for fire tornados for which there is other great footage on this blog such as HERE. Anywho, enjoy this short video from the Eiler Fire filmed on August 2, 2014, from near Hat Creek, CA, which now, two days later, is still raging out of control in eastern Shasta County on the Lassen National Forest near the Lassen Volcanic National Park. An image of this same fire on July 31st or August 1st which with an extinct volcano (Burney Mountain) in front of it made it appear the mountain was erupting was discussed on this blog a couple of days ago and can be viewed HERE. 

Holy Burning Twirling Tumbleweeds!

I saw an initial early cut of this footage sans music some days ago when this footage first hit the internet. That seems to be gone subsequently and replaced with mostly this version in various formulations of length with this now-associated lame-assed music that is totally inappropriate for it. May a pox be upon its creator! This incident occurred recently in Colorado when a controlled burn got out of control due to an unexpected fire whirl.

Morgan Fire Vortex

When I first saw this image of the Morgan Fire burning dramatically atop Mount Diablo from day before yesterday I knew immediately what it was. However, I did not expect to see such a thing coming from this particular incident. It seemed slightly oddly coincidental that it should occur not 200 miles away from me not a month following my Fire Tornados ≠ Fire Whirls! column just over two weeks ago. This vortex clearly involves not only the fire at the surface but also the smoke headed up the rotating convection column. However, it is worth noting this is not the sort of fire & smoke vortex generated by a pyrocumulonimbus cloud such as is discussed in that previous posting here. Photo by Matt Granz (all rights reserved).

Fire Tornados ≠ Fire Whirls!

Despite my own rather expansive knowledge of weather and wildfires accumulated over my entire lifetime as driven by a keen interest in both since I was six years old learned something knew recently that corrected a patently false concept I held. That misconception was that fire tornadoes were merely macro-scale fire whirls which is patently false as it turns out. Fire whirls are generated by rapidly rising hot air within a fire sans any thunderstorms in the vicinity or last are unrelated to any such that is occurring nearby. Fire tornadoes are generated by thunderstorms produced by the fire itself as pyrocumulus clouds atop the convection column rising from the fire develop further into pyrocumulonimbus clouds. Below are featured two examples of raw footage of fire tornadoes. The top clip features a fire tornado in Alaska last week as viewed from an air attack plane of the Alaska Department of Forestry and recorded by air tactical officer Tim Whitesell over the Tetlin Junction Ridge Fire which has burned over 76,000 acres and is still burning. The bottom clip features a fire tornado from the 2003 Canberra bushfires as recorded by Tom Bates, a Kambah resident (suburb of Canberra). That fire tornado generated F-3 winds (160 mph) and at times was 1,600 feet in diamater. The bottom-most player screen features a short documentary on both fire whirls and fire tornadoes. Despite being somewhat old it is still more than worth watching and features addition amazing video of earlier events than the two aforementioned.