How nature scorches the skies with fire tornadoes.
Posted 04.16.2013 at 12:30 pm
1 Comment
Every year I burn down my backyard. Not because I have an unhealthy fascination with fire (which I do), but because my backyard is native prairie. It needs regular burning to maintain the ecosystem. Sometimes I witness fire whirls—spinning columns of flame that last a few seconds and reach 30 to 40 feet into the air. But those are nothing compared to what much bigger backyards can create: fire tornadoes.
Tornadoes are like upside-down drains. Water flowing down a sink spins as centrifugal force interacts with gravity. Similarly, when a column of warm air rises through cooler air, it can form a vortex. If that rising air contains fire, you get a fire whirl or, in extreme cases, a fire tornado—flaring monsters that can reach nearly a mile high and swirl flames faster than 200 mph.
I’ve photographed a fire whirl only once, and I hope I never see a fire tornado. I probably won’t. The only one ever conclusively documented occurred in 2003, after wildfires erupted near Canberra, Australia. Even so, scientists couldn’t confirm what leveled more than 500 homes until they reanalyzed photos of the damage in 2012.
I decided to create my own tabletop fire tornado with USB fans and propane gas. I hooked the fans around a turkey-fryer ring, turned them on, and lowered the fryer’s propane burner into the breeze. It was cheating, as updrafts power the vortex in a real fire tornado, but it still looked cool as the flames compressed into a two-foot-tall twister. (Box fans around a bonfire can create much bigger artificial fire tornadoes.)
By the way, it’s myth that water drains only counterclockwise north of the equator. Fire whirls, like draining water, are too small for the Earth’s rotation to affect them (unlike huge hurricanes). Not that this fact would help if you’re ever caught in one.
WARNING: Play with fire and you’ll get burned. Propane gas flowing into swirling air is an excellent way to test this theory.
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I worry this article will encourage someone to repeat the article and get hurt, despite the disclaimer at the end.
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Speaking of fire from above or in our skies, yes, lol, I am not going of on a little tangent.
Global warming comes from the sun in cycles.
Global warming is being induced by humans since the industrial revolution and the burning of fossil fuels. As long as the world population maintains itself or continues to grow, noting will stop this human made engine.
Last and knew to me is the Earth magnetic polarity is falling in magnetism over the last 150 years and has been notice to increase in speed of falling. Eventually it will fall to nothing and the Earth will have tiny multiple north and south poles scattered around the globe. The power of the magnetic field will be extremely reduced, "allowing the SUNS energy to reach closer to the ground, melting ice, warming the planet further, can causing 100k more induced cancers to humans yearly." The extreme of the diminishing magnetic field or temporary collapse will be deadly for a long time period to planet Earth. Eventually the magnet fields will settle out and the poles on planet Earth will switch south on top and north on bottom.
Nova - Magnetic Storm - Earth's Invisible Shield .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJUTUFAWfEY
Magnetic north shifting by 40 miles a year, might signal pole reversal
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/stories/magnetic-north-shifting-by-40-miles-a-year-might-signal-pole-r
Magnetic polar shifts causing massive global superstorms (continued) Magnetic field may dip, flip and disappear
http://www.december212012.com/articles/news/Magnetic_polar_shifts_causing_massive_global_superstorms-2.htm