Saturday, June 15, 2013

Fire Dragon in Australia - very rare phenomenon

Fire Dragon in Australia - very rare phenomenon.

A rare event near Uluru, Australia.  An astonished film maker is coming to grips with the moment he witnessed one of nature's rarest phenomenonĂ¯ - a tornado comprised entirely of fire  and lived to tell the tale.  Chris Tangey had been out in Alice Springs, Australia, scouting locations for a new movie.  After finishing the task, he went over to help workers at a cattle station when he was confronted by one of nature's most intimidating spectacles.

A fire tornado.

Distant view:  At the time, he was 300 meters away from the
30 meter high fire swirl which 'sounded like a fighter jet',
despite there being no wind in the area.

Destructive:  A fire tornado, also know as a fire devil, is caused when a column
of warm, rising air comes into contact - or causes - a fire on the ground.

These fire tornadoes are a natural rarity, but when they occur they predictably cause significant damage.  These fire whirls are known to last for around two minutes on the very rare occasions they take place.  But Mr. Tangey found himself mesmerized by the tornado for more than 40 minutes.  The 52-year-old said:  The weather was perfectly still, and it was about 25 degrees Celsius - it was an entirely uneventful day.  Then the next thing a man is yelling, 'What the hell is that?', and I turned around and saw a 30 meter fire tornado. I was about 300-meters away and there was no wind but the tornado sounded like a fighter jet. My jaw just dropped. Mr Tangey, who runs Alice Springs Film and Television, in central Australia, described it as a 'once in ten lifetimes experience'.

Brewing storm:   The fire whirl occurred in the Australian outback
as the red cliffs show the area's trademark look.


Dangerous conditions:  The dry heat in the area made it possible for such a rare fire storm to occur

 
Rural:  Thankfully, the fire tornado occurred in the remote Australian outback,
and no injuries were reported. 
He added:  I've been shooting in the outback for 23 years, and I have never seen anything like it.  We've heard about them but they're never seen.  If I had known what was about to happen, I would have happily paid $1,000 to watch it.  At any time there were three different tornadoes, it just kept going and going for 40 minutes.  The whole experience was staggering, and the length and variety were astonishing.  Predictably, these rare spectacles are extremely dangerous.
In 1923, a fire tornado emerged during Japan's Great Kanto Earthquake, and killed 38,000 people in just 15 minutes

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glenn Beck had the gentle, who recorded this event, on his program over a year ago, which I watched. The true is, this was caused by a very volatile dry grass fire which produced the rapid heat and thus the tornado fire. This same thing happens with forest fires. If you watch the video you can see the grass fire which caused this tornado fire. The pictures don’t show you the grass fire and leads you to believe it just came out of thin air.

The reason Glenn Beck had the person on his show was because former Vice President Al Gore wanted to use this in his global warming propaganda. The person who filmed this would not let him do this and went on Glenn Beck to tell the public the truth that this was a rare but totally natural phenomenon.

I gripes me when people bend or changed the truth.

Anonymous said...

Glenn Beck is a dangerous idiot - and keep your head in the sand - best way to stay safe - right?