"Fire Tornado" In Redding California Was Even Scarier, More Incredible Than First Thought

The Reddiing, California "firenado" didn't burn these houses but
its powerful winds still did a lot of damage.

A week or so ago, I described what was pretty much a massive "fire tornado" during what is called the Carr Wildfire in Redding, California. The "tornado" was so massive and powerful that it badly damaged buildings that didn't even burn

I described it - accurately - as extremely scary, but more details have emerged about this thing that make it even more terrifying.

According to the Los Angeles Times, here's what Redding Police Chief Roger Moore saw:

"Trees appeared to be levitating, and branches and sheet metal roofs seemed to orbit the column, Moore said. Uprooted objects launched into the air ignited mid-flight. Vegetation and homes hundreds of feet from the column also caught fire before the twister arrived, he said. It was as loud as a roaring jet engine."

The Los Angeles Times described some of the damage the tornado or fire whirl or whatever it was did:

"A soaring transmission tower was tipped over. Tiles were torn off roofs of homes. Massive trees were uprooted. Vehicles were moved. In one spot, a fence post was bent around a tree with the bark on one side sheared off."

That type of damage, according to a National Weather Service analysis of this incredible event, is the equivalent of an EF-3 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which is a ranking of tornado strengths.

The National Weather Service said the winds in this whirl were as high as 143 mph. Even if it was not a true tornado, this kinda, sorta tornado was the strongest twister in California history.

Most tornadoes are weaker than EF-3's and tornadoes of this strength are terrifying and deadly. However, in a regular, non-wildfire related EF-3 tornado, say in Oklahoma, your chances of survival are good if you are in a storm shelter of the basement of a well-constructed home.

But this was a fire whirl, and taking shelter in a basement wouldn't help. You'd burn to death. It's amazing that this fire tornado tore through a heavily populated area and only six people died in the wildfire. Six people is six too many, but still, this could have killed dozens

Wildfires in California and other areas have gotten, well, wilder in recent years. Heat and drought, at least partly associated with climate change, is causing this dangerous turn in wildfire behavior.

Fire whirls are usually much smaller than the one in Redding, California, but they are always dangerous. They help make the wildfires as a whole more dangerous because they make winds stronger and much more erratic. Plus they fling embers far and wide, starting new fires.

This might be another one of those "new normal" things, unfortunately.

Here's a video taken by Justin Sanchez as he fled the Redding "firenado"  and just barely got out in time. You can probably understand why he sounds so terrified: