Caught On Camera: Rare 'Fire Tornado' Swirls Over A Lake In Canada

Crews working on a wildfire in Canada's British Columbia captured a stunning footage of a rare 'fire tornado'. The video has been posted on X (formerly Twitter) and other social media handles of BC Wildfire Service. It shows a giant vortex of flame swirling in the night sky in the area of Gun Lake north of Pemberton. According to BC Wildfire Service, the fire whirl was spotted last week. It is induced by a fire and often composed of flame or ash.

Last week, a cold front passed through the province following several days of hot, dry weather. pic.twitter.com/fHbPsizjbr

— BC Wildfire Service (@BCGovFireInfo) August 22, 2023

The fire service said the phenomenon was recorded when "a cold front passed through the province following several days of hot, dry weather".

The firefighters later told Canada's CBC News that the "incredibly rare phenomenon" appears because of a combination of extreme fire intensity, plummeting humidity and very low dew point, which measures the quantity of moisture in the air.

"Another important factor in the formation of whirls is adequate vorticity, a measure of the atmosphere's tendency to spin or rotate. Complex terrain, downslope winds and the passing cold front provided the necessary conditions for the formation of this fire whirl over Gun Lake," the fire service said in a social media thread.

The place where wildfire broke out is located 300 kilometres north of Vancouver, said the outlet.

According to US Library of Congress, fire tornadoes are rare atmospheric tornado events. They are also referred to as "pyrogenetic tornadoes", which refers to the way in which they are formed, with a tornado-strength vortex much like a traditional tornado.

Not all fire whirls are fire tornadoes but today some scientists classify certain extreme events as fire tornadoes.