Recently, photos of an interesting, but at the same time frightening natural phenomenon, a fiery tornado, were posted on the Internet. These unique pictures were taken in the USA. The firestorm (the photo in the article demonstrates its destructive power) was formed at the moment when the farmer set fire to the grass in his field, and at that moment the wind spun the tornado.
Tornado
Most of the inhabitants of our planet are already calm about ordinary air whirlwinds, despite the huge destruction they bring. Tornadoes are already firmly established in everyday life on the American continent, there are even groups of extreme scientists who pursue these natural phenomena for their detailed study. However, a fiery tornado is a rather rare phenomenon, which is much more dangerous than an ordinary whirlwind. In our article, we will look at the causes of its occurrence, discuss what danger it poses, and also recall the historical facts associated with this type of tornado.
What is a fire vortex
A fire tornado (photo is given in the article) is an atmospheric phenomenon formed by combining disparate sources of fire. As a result, the air in it rapidly heats up, and its density decreases, as a result, it rises. Its place is occupied by cold streams from peripheral areas. Arrived air also heats up and rises. There is an effect of oxygen suction, and rather stable centripetal flows are formed, which are screwed in a spiral from the earth to the sky. This can be compared to the effect of a chimney, where the pressure of hot air reaches hurricane speed. The height of the fiery tornado can be five thousand meters. The temperature rises to a thousand degrees Celsius. Such a whirlwind draws in everything that is nearby, and so it continues until everything that can burn burns out, after which it subsides.
The most dangerous tornado is fiery
The firestorm was the companion of the most powerful fires in the history of our planet. So, in 1666, this natural phenomenon was recorded during the Great Fire of London. Later, a hundred and fifty years later, in 1812, a fiery whirlwind swept over Moscow when it was set on fire by the retreating Russian troops. The next time a “red tornado” was recorded during the Great Chicago Fire that occurred in 1871, and in 1917 in Greek Thessaloniki.
This terrible phenomenon of nature has become a companion of modern wars. So, quite often it arose during the Second World War. For example,a burning tornado did things in Stalingrad in 1942. However, the "red whirlwind" that swept through the Japanese city of Kobe after it was bombed in 1945 by the US Army is characterized by the largest destruction. Then, as a result of two-day air strikes, more than 40 square kilometers of the city area were destroyed, and more than a hundred thousand people died in the resulting hellish tornado.
Creepy chronicle
From fires suffered: London (1666, the great fire of London), Moscow (1812, the Moscow fire), Chicago (1871, the great Chicago fire), Thessaloniki (1917, the fire of Thessaloniki). The fiery tornado that arose as a result of the bombing swept over the cities: Stalingrad (August 23, 1942), Wuppertal (May 20-30, 1943), Krefeld (June 21-22, 1943), Hamburg (July 28, 1943), Dresden (February 13, 1945), Pforzheim (February 24, 1945), Tokyo (March 9, 1945), Hiroshima (August 6, 1945). There was no fire whirlwind in Nagasaki.
Red Tornado in Hamburg
In order to appreciate the full power and horror of this phenomenon, let's get acquainted with the documentary description of the fire tornado in Hamburg (1943). Between 25 July and 3 August, the Royal Air Force of Great Britain and the United States Air Force carried out a series of "carpet bombing" of the city. The largest number of human casu alties was recorded on July 28. Then, as a result of the appearance of a fiery tornado, more than 40 thousand people died.
Detailedchronology of the firestorm in Hamburg
The first incendiary air bombs fell at one in the morning on Frankenstrasse and Spaldingstrasse. Fires broke out in the districts of Hammerbrock, Rothenburgsort and Hamm. These pockets served as a guide for aviation, and in the next 15 minutes, 2417 tons of mines, high-explosive and incendiary shells fell on these and neighboring urban areas. As a result of the bombardment, all city communications were destroyed, and fire brigades simply turned out to be powerless against such a number of foci. People were gathered in bomb shelters. Several whirlwinds of fire grew up above the city, which rushed through the streets with a terrible howl, accelerated and gained strength. After 45 minutes from the beginning of the bombardment, many small fires merged into two powerful fires. Above them formed one huge fiery tornado. More than 130 kilometers of streets and 16,000 high-rise buildings ended up in its crucible. There was a thermal cyclone, the diameter of which was 3.5 kilometers, and the height - five kilometers, and all this with a temperature of 800 degrees Celsius. The fire tornado was localized in an area of 10 square kilometers. At three o'clock in the morning in the areas of the Wandsbek Highway and the Berlin Gate, a continuous sea of \u200b\u200bfire was formed, the height of which was 30-50 meters. The tornado reached its peak between 3:00 and 3:30. At this temperature, objects flared up without direct contact with fire. Aluminum and lead products became liquid, and steel products became ductile. They deformed, unable to withstand structural loads. Even the bricks melted and burned slowly, transforming under the weight of the buildings andexploded into dust … Buildings collapsed. The people in the bomb shelters simply suffocated as the tornado sucked all the air out. At 4.30 the wind began to subside, but the heat was still unbearable. At 6.12 in the zone of the fiery whirlwind, everything that could burn burned out. Everything around looked like giant hot coals. In order to start dismantling the wreckage, we had to wait 10 days, as the high temperature did not allow us to approach the area. These are the consequences of the fiery tornado.
Red Tornado over Irkutsk
December 6, 1997, a plane crash occurred in the village of aircraft builders. In terms of scale, it is, of course, inferior to Hamburg and others, but this does not make it any less terrible. The peaceful life of the settlement was disrupted by the fall of the largest production aircraft in the world - An-124 Ruslan. 130 tons of aviation fuel flared up instantly, and a firestorm hit the city block. This accident is one of the largest in the 20th century. Using the example of a German city, we can imagine what happened in this village; Now the address Grazhdanskaya street, house 45 in Irkutsk does not exist, and there is a chapel in that place. Subsequently, the documentary film "Fire Tornado over Irkutsk" was filmed. This is a unique chronicle of the rescue operation, which also contains amateur footage, interviews with rescuers, firefighters and eyewitnesses.
A firestorm in Australia
In September 2012, this unique phenomenon changed theworking day of the Australian film crew. Literally 300 meters from them, a fiery whirlwind rose to a 30-meter height and raged for about 40 minutes. It happened near the city of Alice Springs, in the central part of the continent. A fire tornado in Australia is a rather rare phenomenon, despite the frequent fires that cover its territory during the summer drought. And even in this case, there were no prerequisites for its occurrence: there was complete calm, and the air temperature was only 25 degrees. According to experts, the danger of the phenomenon we are considering lies in its rarity and unpredictability.
