Fire Storms

A major fire is news when it consumes homes and claims lives--but when it makes weather it's science.

By Mark Wheeler
May 1, 1994 5:00 AMNov 12, 2019 4:29 AM

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Fire fighters hate winds. They can make a fire fall to a puff or explode to a roar; they can make it jink to the left or right, or halt and spin in a circle. Nature's winds are fickle and unpredictable, and they can be a fire fighter's worst enemy. What's more, when conditions are right, fires spawn their own winds as the flames gobble up oxygen, sucking it in from all sides. These winds in turn can create a bizarre natural phenomenon: microweather, born of fire. Odd little weather systems, occurring within the larger system, can give rise to tornadoes filled with fire and noxious gases. They can cause huge thunderheads to form in a cloudless sky; they can make rain fall and lightning flash.

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