Dust And Other Weird Devils

Mostly during the warm times of year, dust devils swirl in open areas on sunny days. The sun heats the ground, producing updrafts. Breezes can start spinning the air and you get dust devils, that basically look like little tornadoes on nice days.

Dust devils are almost always harmless, but the strongest ones can cause some damage.  Sometimes you get some strange examples, like a couple of cool ones we'll highlight here.

In Elkhorn, West Virginia, a dust devil turned into a coal devil as it moved over a field of coal dust last week. I'm sure the air was just FINE to breathe inside this thing:



In the next video, taken more than a month ago, an unusually strong dust devil takes a palm tree for a spin in Phoenix, Arizona.  If that tree was a person, that person sure would be dizzy after this. Watch:



The final video was taken in July, 2018 near Blythe, California by Chris Mackie. This is along the Colorado River during a major wildfire. These fires can creatre whirls or "fire devils," or whatefer you want to call them that can by much more intense than regular dust devils.

This Blythe, California one started as a big, strong rotation in the wildfire, strong enough to uproot and fling trees. Wildfires create their own weather, so when the whirl kept going out onto the water it became a sort of intense waterspout.

On rare occasions, an intense wildfire can create its own intense thunderstorm that can actually produce real tornadoes. This might have been one of those cases. Really amazing!

Last Slap Of Florence Hits Hard; Fire Tornado Sucks Up Hose, Melts It

One of the damaging tornadoes in Virginia Monday,
part of the remains of Florence

The remains of Hurricane Florence still had quite a punch Monday, unleashing tornadoes on Virginia that killed at least one person.  

Dramatic video at the bottom of this post shows it ripping roofs off buildings and flinging the debris high into the air.

A flooring company warehouse collapsed on workers during the tornado in Chesterfield County, Virginia, killing one employee and injuring another. This brought the overall death toll from Florence so far to 32.

The very last gasp, or what we think is the last gasp, is in southern New England this morning, prompting flash flood warnings in southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts  flood advisories in far southern Vermont, and flood warnings in parts of New York.

The rain avoided parched northern Vermont, and only scattered light showers might fall today as a couple of cold fronts come through. Nothing heavy. but the unseasonably hot, humid weather is ending and we will get into a spell of cool autumn weather, with the exception of a brief warmup Friday.

It has stopped raining in North Carolina, but the flooding on some rivers is only just peaking, and it will take many days for all of them to recede so cleanup can start.

FIRE WHIRL SUCKS UP HOSE

A viral video making the rounds shows a "a fire tornado" during an August 19 wild fire in British Columbia sucking a fire hose up into the air. This video is also at the bottom of this post.

Firefighter M,C. Schidowsky wrote on Instagram: "Fire tornado destroyed our line. It threw burning logs across our guard for 45 minutes and pulled our hose 100 plus feet in the air before melting it. That's definitely a first."

Seems like fire tornadoes are now a thing, give the history with that one in California earlier this year that destroyed homes around Redding, California.

First, here's the tornado video from Virginia, after that will be the fire tornado/hose video.



Here's the fire tornado grabbing the hose:

New Videos Of California "Fire Tornado" Even More Terrifying

Terrifying helicopter view of massive fire tornado" ripping
through Redding, California neighborhoods. 

I know I've gone gaga over that terrible "fire tornado" during the Carr Fire around Redding, California earlier this summer. I've already done a couple posts about it.

New footage, from a helicopter and a fire truck has emerged showing the incredible power and huge size of this tornado like whirl.

As I've previously reported, a National Weather Service analysis of this thing indicated it had winds as high as 143 mph - very much like a strong EF-3 tornado.

An additional video shows the fire tornado crossing the Sacramento River while staying intact and powerful. Quite the scene!

Here's the new videos:



This video shows the fire tornado going out onto the Sacramento River. A hellish scene of fire on water:

Fire Tornado In California Wildfire

A whirl of flames and ash during a wildfire near
Santa Barbara, California last week.
Photo by David McNew AFP/Getty  

The record heat that's gripping the American southwest is also raising the risk of wildfire, and making the ones that are going even worse.  

Already, some have been burning in recent days in California, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

A wildfire near Santa Barbara, California last wee riggered a very scary looking fire tornado, which you can see in the video below.

The heat in the Southwest has tempered only slightly in the past couple of days, and above normal temperatures with very little precipitation are forecast for at least the next week in that region.

So more wildfire trouble seems inevitable

Watch the fire tornado: