Another Saturday, another night spending hours researching tornadoes

TIL intense fires can cause “fire tornadoes”, which are full-on superheated versions of typical tornadoes. There was one in the 2018 California Carr fire (only the second scientifically confirmed fire tornado) that was an EF-3 and a half mile wide. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/californias-carr-fire-spawned-true-fire-tornado/amp

WTFFFF Idk why we don’t talk about this but the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 in Japan sparked fires in Tokyo that generated an enormous fire tornado that killed nearly 44,000 people who had gathered by the Sumida River for refuge. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-japan-earthquake-of-1923-1764539/

True fire tornadoes are rare, but “fire whirls” are pretty common (basically dust devils caused by fires). Pics of real fire tornadoes are harder to photograph because of the smoke and their rarity but there are some sweet pics of fire whirls that get across the idea!