It has been one hell of a year so far.
In 2020, we have seen tragic celebrity deaths, the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, socio-cultural and political upheavals, racial disparities, large protests, heat waves, and not to mention the plagues of locusts. And now it’s a blazing fire tornado.
On August 15, 2020, the National Weather Service (NWS) in California issued its first-ever warning for a fire tornado.
NWS forecaster Wendell Hohmann, who warned us about the fire tornado, said that it was the first time to his knowledge of a tornado warning of this nature.
He said, “It’s probably the first time it’s been issued outside of a thunderstorm environment.”
The warning read, “Winds hit 60 mph in the area, whipping up the cloud, posing ‘an extremely dangerous situation for firefighters.’”
“The Loyalton Fire to the east of the Sierra Valley exploded most impressively this afternoon, with a very large pyrocumulus and reports of fire tornadoes,” the warning added. “Due to the possibility of very strong fire-generated winds and extreme fire behavior with danger to fire personnel, a tornado warning was issued to heighten awareness in the area of the fire”
Meteorologist Matthew Cappucci explained how incredible this fire tornado was. He tweeted, “For the first time in history, a tornado warning has been issued for a likely *fire tornado*. These are not ‘firewhirls.’”
“This is a rotating smoke plume being ingested into a pyrocumulonimbus cloud that could produce a bonafide fire-induced tornado,” the atmospheric scientist added. “Tornadic wind speeds.”
People have written about the fire whirl and fire vortexes that rose from a burning bourbon distillery; however, Cappucci cleared the air and said it was a different animal.
On Saturday night, an epic electrical storm hit the San Francisco Bay area. As of August 16, there were no warnings of plagues of frogs or alien invasions. However, given the recent events, it seems like 2020 is not done with us yet.
