3 CRAZY Weather phenomena!

Hello internet. Today I will be talking about three CRAZY and DESTRUCTIVE weather phenomena.

Fire Whirl forming in a wildfire.

1. Pyro-tornadogenesis. Better known as "Fire Whirls." These things are very destructive, dangerous, and very cool looking. They even have a cool name. Fire whirls are a phenomenon where, under certain conditions, a fire acquires a vertical velocity and forms a tornado-like vortex of fire and destruction. They're usually 10-50 meters tall, a few meters wide, and only last a few minutes. However, some can be more than a kilometer tall. One notable one is the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake (look, I know it says "earthquake", but during the earthquake large fires broke out). The fire whirl that formed was the single most destructive event that killed the most people that fire.

Opaque mammatus clouds

2. Mammatus Clouds. also known as mammatocumulus (meaning "mammary cloud" or "pouch cloud"), is a meteorologists term applied to a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud. The name mammatus, derived from the Latin mamma (meaning "udder" or "pouch"), refers to a resemblance between the shape of these clouds and the pouch of a bag. These clouds present no precipitation, but when they are present, they usually mean the front or the coming of a huge thunderstorm. These clouds may appear as smooth, ragged or lumpy lobes and may be opaque or translucent.


3. Circumhorizon Arc. Better known as "Fire Rainbows". This is an optical phenomenon - an ice-halo formed by plate-shaped ice crystals in high level cirrus clouds. Formation of the halo requires that the sun be very high in the sky, at an elevation of 58° or greater, and that a cirrus cloud or haze be present and contain plate-shaped ice crystals. However, please note that even though most people use the misleading term "fire rainbow" to describe this phenomena (even me, but that was just to show you that most people use that term), but a circumhorizon arc has nothing to do with rainbows or fire.

Interesting fact of the day: There is a real life lightsaber created by the air force. The "blade" can reach 5000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is far above the Draper point (click for more explanation about the Draper point).