Click HERE to watch the video.
Story:
Hawaii (August 27, 2010) - They’re called fire tornadoes. Or fire whirls. Or fire devils.
They’re a rarely-seen phenomenon that can be catastrophic.
This fire tornado was recorded in late August by a firefighter with the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Fire tornadoes occur when intense heat causes air to rise and combine with whirling eddies of air. It consists of a core, and an invisible pocket of rotating air.
Because of the intense heat, the rotating air, mixed with gases from burning vegetation, can increase dramatically in intensity—lifting smoke, debris and embers high into the air.
Fire tornadoes can spew embers thousands of feet in the air—allowing wildfires to spread quickly.
The Hawaii firefighters were battling a 1400 acre fire on the southern slope of Mauna Kea volcano.
This whirl is too dangerous to try and fight.
In the video, this fire whirl started with a narrow column of fire in the center of a small dust tornado. Then the tornado gets bigger, and the fire grows. In the end of the video, the fire sort of ‘explodes’ to be much larger and more dangerous. As the fire truck drives away you can see the enormity of the fire.
Questions:
1) Where did this story take place?
2) When did this story take place?
3) Who recorded the video?
4) When do fire tornadoes occur?
5) How many acres did the fire burn?
6) What is another name for a fire tornado?
Info and video from National Geographic. Pic from technologycribb.files.wordpress.com
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