John Jefferson
A wildfire likely caused the rare weather phenomenon of fire tornadoes in Northern California.
The tornadoes stemmed from the Park Fire, which started after a 42-year-old man from Chico allegedly pushed a burning car into a ditch. The fire engulfed 164,000 acres in 36 hours.
Changes in wind conditions on Thursday evening caused the blaze to rotate. Low-level winds were blowing in different directions at the location of the fire, which is indicative of a tornado, according to The Washington Post.
It’s not clear how many tornadoes were formed. Data from a Doppler radar showed that fire tornados spun out of the smoke.
The smoke plume reached 25,000 feet, which means it could’ve created its own thunderstorm, another rare occurrence that could see the thunderstorm spitting out lightning.
The Park Fire is currently three percent contained. Officials will not be able to verify that the tornadoes occurred until the fire has been extinguished.
Parts of the northern Sacramento Valley, including Redding, Paradise and Chico are under a red flag warning.
The area is still under the threat of additional fires. There are humidity levels of 10 to 20 percent with high heat and winds of 20 to 30 mph. Temperatures on Friday are likely to hit 100 degrees.
Cooler conditions are expected into the weekend as temperatures drop into the 80s and 90s.
Other fire tornadoes have occurred in Australia and California.
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