Pyro tornadogenesis

[NZstorm]

From the files of "believe it or not" Australian scientists are claiming such a thing as fire tornadoes. Apparently a large thunderstorm developed over a Canberra bush fire in 2003 and dropped a twister! I heard this story on National radio today.


http://www.canberratimes.com.au/environ ... 29liv.html

Journal article
http://link.springer.com/article/10.100 ... .html#Sec2

[Tornado Tim]

Why would they call it pyro tornadogensis when it is infact tornadogenisis.
Its just that fire is providing the heat to fuel the storm which contains a mesocyclone and tornado.

I would think this occurrence would be very rare, even a storm forming from fire (depending on size) can be rare.
The SFC humidity when a wildfire breaks out (non man made) is usually very low, too dry in most cases to support SFC based storm formation. These storms must be elevated to some degree, which would hence make them less likely to produce tornadoes.

Interesting

Reports such as these always wet my appetite for further investigation, perhaps my next career should be an investigative Weather researcher

[NZstorm]

Looks like an elevated thunderstorm certainly developed as Tim suggests but we are a long off a tornado with an elevated cb.

The sounding provided shows some shear, otherwise a dry stable airmass for surface based convection. So for a tornado to have occured, there would have had to have significant modification of that sounding. When I get a chance I will have a closer look at the wider conditions over SE Australia on the day to see whether very moist air from the coast could have been impinging on the area affected by the so called tornado.

[Manukau heads obs]

sounds like more costs to home owners to have a house that will withstand the wind from the fire tornado...never mind that its going to get sorched/burnt as it passes over...or am I missing something here?

[Nev]

Thanks for the links Steven. Interesting stuff!

Below is an interview with the report's lead researcher Rick McRae from Canberra's Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre explaining basically what a fire tornado is...



Original Source: 'Researchers document fire tornado' - ABC News
(full-screen option recommended)

[NZstorm]

BOM MSL chart for the day at 00Z which is 10am local.

Note the surface boundary approaching the area.

[NZstorm]

Looks like this was a stretched vortex rather than tornadogenisis.