very small to intense, long-lived tornado-like vortices capable of causing significant damage were spawned by fires generated from the 1000 MW Météotron, a series of large oil wells located in the Lannemezan plain of France used for testing atmospheric motions and thermodynamics. During the 2003 Canberra bushfires in Canberra, Australia, a violent fire whirl was documented. It was calculated to have horizontal winds of and vertical air speed of , causing the flashover of in 0.04 seconds. It was the first known fire whirl in Australia to have EF3 wind speeds on the Enhanced Fujita scale. A fire whirl, of reportedly uncommon size for New Zealand wildfires, formed on day three of the 2017 Port Hills fires in Christchurch. Pilots estimated the fire column to be high. Residents in the city of Redding, California, while evacuating the area from the massive Carr Fire in late July 2018, reported seeing pyrocumulonimbus clouds and tornado-like behaviour from the firestorm, resulting in uprooted trees, cars, structures and other wind related damages in addition to the fire itself. As of August 2, 2018, a preliminary damage survey, led by the National Weather Service (NWS) in Sacramento, California, rated the July 26th fire whirl as an EF3 tornado with winds in excess of . On August 15, 2020, for the first time in its history, the U.S. National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for a pyrocumulonimbus created by a wildfire near Loyalton, California capable of producing a fire tornado. Blue whirl In controlled small-scale experiments, fire whirls are found to transition to a mode of combustion called blue whirls. The name blue whirl was coined because the soot production is negligible, leading to the disappearance of the yellow color typical of a fire whirl. Blue whirls are partially premixed flames that reside elevated in the recirculation region of the vortex-breakdown bubble. The flame length and burning rate of a blue whirl are smaller than those of a fire whirl. See also Dust devil Steam devil Waterspout References Further reading External links photo fire whirl outback Australia Fire tornado video (whirl) 11 September 2012 Alice Springs Australia Photo www.abc.net.au/news Australian researchers document world-first fire tornado (Canberra). And https://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/21/australian_fire_tornado/ 2013 'Fire Tornado' video. Canberra 2003 groundtrack, lee side spread, weather. 11:08 Catalyst story: Fire Tornado Another photo www.youtube.com Video of a Fire whirl (0:30), Brazil. Video of a Fire Tornado in San Diego country Fire Whirl