Fire tornado - first time one's been documented...
I think by documented, they mean studied one where they got footage and photos of it. I didn't think they existed, and remember scoffing at my Dad who lives at the foot of Mt. Arawang when he told me the next day he saw a big tornado. I believed the fireball that went down my parents street, but not the tornado...
Anyway, for anyone interested in freaky and rare stuff, this might interest you, even though the tornado was only an F2 and nowhere near the size of the monsters tornados they get over in the US...
= new reply since forum marked as read
...this is probably something we'll be seeing more of as the climate changes.
Hey, anyone want to talk about those Eucalyptus trees they want to cut down on the University of California Berkeley campus?
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/06/11/uc-berkeley-expert-talks-about-hillside-tree-removal-plan
The trees are very invasive here in California and truly frightening in the wind. They drop huge branches easily big enough to kill people or crash automobiles.
When I was a kid controlled burns were common but they stopped for air quality and liability reasons. Sometimes the fires would get away. I've seen some fearsome eucalyptus fueled wildfires.
Furthermore, just about the only thing that will grow under the trees is poison oak. Touching poison oak causes a bad rash for most people. Smoke from poison oak is just as bad and could kill someone who is extremely sensitive to it.
Goats, dogs, and cats have no problem with poison oak. Goats will eat it. But touching an animal that's been wandering through it will give you a rash. If our dogs have been in the poison oak, even if we only suspect they have, we bathe them.
We have dingos around here too. Nobody knows where they came from. No, they are not "American Dingos" (otherwise known as Carolina Dogs). They are feral and generally as invisible as coyotes.
I did a bit of research and found this (shorter, 1:51) National Geographic video that shows the initial formation of a funnel during a fire in Hawaii: Environment News: Fire Tornado Filmed in Hawaii. The video isn't linkable so go to the link to view.
I like songs that tell stories ('folk' songs). One of my favorite examples of these is Cold Missouri Waters by Canadian singer-songwriter James Keelaghan, which tells, in five verses, the story of the Mann Gulch fire in Montana in 1949 - one of the most tragic fires in the United States in terms of the number of firefighters who died in the blaze. The story of the fire was also captured in the book Young Men and Fire by Norman McLean.
The Mann Gulch fire occurred in high wind conditions as well, with lots of drive trees and grass, which led to the tragedy. No fire tornado though.
Here is James Keelaghan recounting the story:
Thanks for the post, VC.
My wife is from Melbourne. Her two sons and six granddaughters live in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as her brother and sister and many extended family. We are always concerned about the reports of fires in Oz. I visited the beautiful city of Canberra in the mid-eighties.
