SDS treatment: Firenadoes

[Dick McGowan]

I was out today west of Olathe taking pictures of a controlled burn and as I was leaving noticed these vortices that would start in the fire and move out of them with debris clouds similar to tornadoes! They would last a few minutes before dissipating and when I went back out later, there weren't any at all as the surface winds picked up. I remember Mike Umscheid a few years ago had some pretty sweet photos of these. These are taken on the wide end (from 10-20 mm) and it sure does help cure SDS! The motion on them was intense even though they wouldn't be more than 5 yards wide and 100 yards tall.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

That's cool is it a land spout type effect?

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

I have seen a few smaller ones from fires, but these were usually is semi-wooded areas so they did not have any room to develop like the one you got.
That are neat looking.

 

[Dick McGowan]

Jim, I'm not entirely sure. I was talking to a fireman and a conservation officer and they seemed to think they formed when two "headfires" converged near each other and claim to see them a lot. This one below, was before the first one I posted and the motion on it resembled an intense tornado...I wish I would have had my video camera to film the motion on it!

 

[Jim Saueressig]

Jim, I'm not entirely sure. I was talking to a fireman and a conservation officer and they seemed to think they formed when two "headfires" converged near each other and claim to see them a lot. This one below, was before the first one I posted and the motion on it resembled an intense tornado...I wish I would have had my video camera to film the motion on it!

It was that bottom structure that made me ask, it seems more like a land spout or tight large CA style dust devil to me than the usual whirlwind dust devils we see here. I do know as it gets hotter that the higher temps off of the black burnt ash seems to increase the dust devil intensities but that's pretty defined there.