Articles for tag: Climate Change, Disaster Science, Fire Tornadoes, Firestorms, Wildfire Research

a large explosion in space

The Science of Fire Tornadoes – And Why They’re Appearing More Often in the West

Suhail Ahmed

The Carr Fire in northern California was already devastating enough when something unthinkable happened. On July 26, 2018, winds within a fire tornado reached 143 miles per hour, equivalent to an EF3 tornado, carving a path of destruction unlike anything firefighters had witnessed before. This wasn’t just wildfire anymore – nature had weaponized flame itself ...

silhouette of trees under orange cloudy skies

How Wildfires Create Their Own Weather Systems

Suhail Ahmed

Stand beneath a smoke-darkened sky during a major fire and you can feel the atmosphere turn restless, almost electric, as if the blaze is rewriting the rules above your head. Across the world’s fire-prone regions, scientists are documenting a remarkable phenomenon: intense wildfires that grow tall enough and hot enough to spawn clouds, winds, and ...