Fire tornado

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Chris Tangey took this intense image of a tornado sucking a brushfire into the sky near Alice Springs, Australia. From The Australian:

"There was no wind where we were, and yet you had this tornado," Tangey says.
For him, it sounded "like a fighter jet"; for (firefighter Ashley) Severin, it was like "standing behind a 747". "I've never seen anything like it. I just thought the ground was going to start trembling," Severin says. "The noise it was making, the speed, the red flames in the centre of it. It was like a kaleidoscope show."

"Alice dust devils pack a gullet full of flames"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

MORE: australia • fire • tornadoes

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The Snowden Principle

http://echofox3.blogspot.com efergus3

Sorry, not a tornado. Tornadoes/funnel clouds/waterspouts reach DOWN from the clouds. This is surface based like a huge dust devil. Just a LOT more dangerous.
- timquinn
  
  yeah, tell my amygdala.
  - http://echofox3.blogspot.com efergus3
    
    Be afraid, be VERY afraid.
- GawainLavers
  
  “Fire Devil” sounds sort of redundant in a headline, though.
http://www.facebook.com/musmuslim Mus Lim Aminuddin

oh my god
Taniwha

um – “welcome to BurningMan” …. similar fire devils have been known to break away during that burn
http://www.zazzle.com/InfinitudeTortoises* An Infinitude of Tortoises

No doubt there will be a small contingent out there searching the smouldering grass for a new set of Commandments….
surreality

Hello new desktop background. Weather conditions that caused this are disastrous and upsetting, though. Sad.
http://avarana.blogspot.com MarlboroTestMonkey7

Bird eating spiders, giant sharks and crocs, boxing marsupials and now dragons. WTF Australia?
- http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi
  
  Don’t forget the small but deadly jellyfish, for which there is no known anti-venom!
benher

Now now, there must be a rational explanation – Like Gawd! Guiding people through the desert!
http://www.jimdraws.com Thorzdad

I guess, technically, this is a small-ish firestorm. A fire starts and the thermal updraft stokes the fire and this upward confluence builds. See also: The bombing of Dresden.
- http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
  
  Yeah its a normal thermal with a little bit more energy than usual behind it.
noah django

I was burning a mattress in my backyard last year (insert “you might be a redneck” joke) when one of these suckers shot up taller than me. doubly unexpected because the mattress wasn’t flaming, just smouldering, due no doubt to the fire-retardants. then–WHOOSH! the contrast between the sinking, “I’m fucked” feeling and the adrenalized “oh shit!” reaction was palpable.

luckily, it quickly dissipated and then I was all “that was beautiful. do it again!”
Antinous / Moderator

I wish somebody would do new graphics for that part of The Ten Commandments. The rest of the movie is so great (visually) and that part is so cheesy. It looked like the Roadrunner was about to zip by Pharaoh’s chariot.
entheo

I prefer this link, which shows the Fire Devil in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu-o3aRvtqA
which I found from this link (as oposed to The Australian which wants me to log on)
http://www.businessinsider.com/fire-tornadoes-in-australian-outback-2012-9
- Ipo
  
  Wow! It whirls much faster than I had imagined.
  
  (as opposed to The Australian which is a Murdoch site and disables the back button by loading itself repeatedly trapping your browser)
Felton / Moderator

Wait, how did the Ark of the Covenant end up in Australia?
Peter Mann

Yep, pretty much everything here is working to kill you. The sky included – if it’s not fire, it’s skin cancer!
Frank Diekman

Nathan Explosion voice: Woah. Totally metal.