Video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9bvpierpsea4awq/VRP50203.mp4?dl=0
A rare fire tornado emerged as Tamarack Fire ripped through a hillside in California.
Footage shows wisps of flames from the wildfire twisting upward and forming a thin tornado column in Calaveras County on July 23.
A Yocha Dehe Fire Department said: ‘You can see a fire whirl capable of spreading fire very quickly over a large area.’
Fire tornadoes or fire whirls form when superheated air from the ground rises and is replaced by surrounding gases. This creates eddies of rotating air which then form a fire whirl.