Fire whirl

A fire whirl is a spinning wind.

It looks like a tall tube. It is made of fire and smoke.

Hot air rises up from a fire. This makes the wind spin. The spinning wind can lift burning wood.

These bits can start new fires.

Some whirls are very small. They can happen at a bonfire. Big whirls come from wildfires. They can even pull up tall trees.

These whirls do not last long. Most only last a few minutes. Some can last for twenty minutes.

It is a very powerful thing to see.

A fire whirl is a spinning column of air. It is made by a fire.

It often contains flames and ash.

How does it form? It starts with a whirl of wind. This wind is often seen through smoke. Intense heat rises from a fire. This heat makes the air move in a wild way. These moving parts of air can spin together. They form a tight vortex, which is a spinning tube of air. This vortex can pull in gas and bits of debris.

Fire whirls can be quite big. Most are only a few meters wide. They usually last for a few minutes. Some can last for more than 20 minutes. Large whirls can even pull up tall trees. They can lift burning bark and embers. These bits can fly through the air. This helps a wildfire start new fires in other places.

Scientists use special names for fire clouds. They use the prefix pyro-, which means fire. They call these pyrocumulus clouds. Some whirls are even called pyrotornadoes. These are very strong and can cause damage.

A fire whirl is a spinning column of air made by a fire.

People sometimes call them fire devils or fire tornadoes. These whirls are often filled with flames and ash. They are very different from regular tornadoes. Most fire whirls do not reach from the ground to the clouds. Their spinning comes from heat and surface winds rather than storms high above. These spinning tubes of air are amazing and powerful natural events.

How does a fire whirl work? It starts with a whirl of wind that smoke makes easy to see. Intense heat rises quickly from a big fire. This heat creates wild, moving air called turbulence. These moving parts of air can spin together into a tight vortex. This vortex pulls in gases and bits of debris.

Some whirls can even reach wind speeds over 160 kilometers per hour. They can last for more than 20 minutes.

Scientists have studied these whirls for a long time. In 1871, a fire whirl burned the town of Williamsonville, Wisconsin. Today, that place is called Tornado Memorial County Park. In 1923, a huge fire whirl happened during the Great Kanto earthquake in Japan. It occurred in the Hifukusho-ato area of Tokyo. Large fire whirls were also seen after lightning hit an oil facility in California in 1926. Even scientists in France studied them using large oil wells in the 1960s and 1970s.

There are many ways to group these whirls. Scientists use the prefix "pyro-" to mean fire. They call fire-induced clouds pyrocumulus or pyrocumulonimbus. Some people even suggest names like pyronado or pyrotornado.

In 2003, a violent fire whirl was seen in Canberra, Australia. It had very fast winds and vertical air speeds. In 2020, the U.S. National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for a fire cloud near Loyalton, California. More recently, a fire whirl was spotted in the Palisades wildfire in 2025.

Fire whirls can change how a wildfire moves. They can lift burning tree bark and embers into the air. These hot bits can fly far away to start new fires.

This is called "spotting." You can also see smaller versions of these whirls at a backyard bonfire. In science labs, researchers even make tiny fire whirls with very small fires. Some special whirls in labs even turn blue. These are called blue whirls because they do not make much soot.

A fire whirl is a spinning column of air created by a fire.

These phenomena are also called fire devils or fire tornadoes. They are often composed of flames and ash. While they look like tornadoes, they are actually different. Most fire whirls do not extend from the ground to the cloud base. Their spinning comes from surface winds and heat-induced lifting. This is different from a classic tornado, which comes from a mesocyclone high in the atmosphere.

To understand how a fire whirl works, we must look at the movement of air. It begins with a whirl of wind, often made visible by smoke. Intense heat rises quickly from a fire, creating an updraft. This rising heat combines with turbulent wind conditions to create whirling eddies of air. These eddies can contract into a tight, tornado-like vortex. As the vortex spins, it ingests combustible gases and debris.

Some of these whirls can be very large. They can be more than 100 meters tall and several meters wide. They can even reach wind speeds over 160 kilometers per hour. Some can persist for more than 20 minutes.

Scientists recognize three main types of fire whirls based on their position. Type 1 whirls are stable and stay centered over the burning area. Type 2 whirls are either stable or transient and occur downwind of the fire. Type 3 whirls are steady or transient and center over an open area next to an asymmetric fire. There is also a broader classification system proposed by Forman A. Williams. This system includes five categories: whirls generated by fuel distribution, whirls above fuel in pools or water, tilted whirls, moving whirls, and whirls modified by vortex breakdown.

Fire whirls play a significant role in how wildfires spread. They can uproot trees that are 30 meters tall or even larger. These whirls aid in a process called "spotting." This happens when the whirl lifts burning materials, like tree bark, into the air. Stronger winds aloft then blow these burning embers away from the main fire. This allows the wildfire to propagate and start new fires in different locations.

History shows us how powerful these events can be. In 1871, a fire whirl burned the community of Williamsonville, Wisconsin. In 1923, a massive firestorm during the Great Kantō earthquake in Tokyo produced a gigantic fire whirl. This event killed 38,000 people in the Hifukusho-ato region in just fifteen minutes. In 1926, lightning strikes at an oil facility in California caused fire whirls that damaged buildings far from the fire. Scientists also studied fire whirls produced by firebombings in World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Modern observations have provided even more specific data. During the 2003 Canberra bushfires in Australia, a violent fire whirl was documented. It had horizontal winds of 240 kilometers per hour and vertical air speeds of 120 kilometers per hour. This was the first known fire whirl in Australia to reach EF3 wind speeds on the Enhanced Fujita scale. In 2020, the U.S. National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for a pyrocumulonimbus near Loyalton, California. This was the first time such a warning was issued for a fire-induced cloud.

Fire whirls are connected to larger atmospheric systems. When large fires create clouds, these are called pyrocumulus or pyrocumulonimbus clouds. These clouds can sometimes spawn landspouts, waterspouts, or even tornadoes. In laboratory settings, researchers have discovered a specific mode called a "blue whirl." This happens during controlled experiments where soot production is very low. Because there is almost no soot, the typical yellow color of the fire disappears, leaving a blue flame. These blue whirls have a smaller flame length and a slower burning rate than standard fire whirls.