Fire Tonado In Alice Springs

[allsorts]

wow, i didn't know you could get a fire tornado.

http://www.dailymail...40-MINUTES.html

[Andy Bown]

The saying about learning something new every day has just applied to me! Thank you for sharing.

[Paul]

Here's the video

http://youtu.be/uu-o3aRvtqA

[Coast]

wow, i didn't know you could get a fire tornado.

A fire whirl, colloquially fire devil or fire tornado, is a phenomenon—rarely captured on camera—in which a fire, under certain conditions (depending on air temperature and currents), acquires a vertical vorticity and forms a whirl, or a tornado-like vertically oriented rotating column of air. Fire whirls may be whirlwinds separated from the flames, either within the burn area or outside it, or a vortex of flame, itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_whirl

A rare sight indeed.

[Styx]

It's called a willy willy here, or more commonly known as a dust devil. No tornado.

Great video, first I've seen it.

The Australian English term "willy-willy" or "whirly-whirly" is thought to derive from Yindjibarndi or a neighboring language.^[2] In Aboriginal myths, willy willies represent spirit forms. They are often quite scary spirits, and parents may warn their children that if they misbehave, a spirit will emerge from the spinning vortex of dirt and chastise them. There is a story of the origin of the brolga in which a bad spirit descends from the sky and captures the young being and abducts her by taking the form of a willy-willy.