Here in the U.S., we've had our fair share of fire-related problems this summer, especially because of the droughts that dried out a good part of the country. In Australia, they've also been hit hard by wildfires, but they recently got a taste of some other rare weather occurances spawned by the fires.
According to Examiner.com and Accuweather.com, a 100ft fire tornado was born in the middle of one of the wildfires that are currently raging out there in the Outback. A fire tornado occurs when the hot air of a wildfire whirls up and around into a tornado, and sucks up the fire from below. Also called a firenado, fire devil, or firewhirl, this fire tornado spun around the Australian landscape near Alice Springs for over a half an hour.
I feel like these columns of fire are pretty cool to see, but they are also quite deadly. As I read in the article on Examiner.com, the worst recorded killer fire tornado was in Japan, where out of 44,000 people, only 300 survived.
Like I always do, here are the links to the articles and the videos on the whirling infernos:
http://www.examiner.com/article/australian-outback-bushfire-spawns-amazing-fire-tornado
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/100-foot-firenado-in-australia/75219
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