New Mexico Fire-Devils

Greetings:

Last week, around Wednesday, there was a large grass fire west of Portales,
New Mexico, USA. The wind was around 45 knots and it was warm.

Albuquerque television station KOB aired some video tape of the fire that I
found astounding. They showed two, what I would call, fire-devils. The
fire-devils were moving at near the speed of the wind and were rotating
rapidly and in fact looked just like dust-devils made of fire. I did not
record the early footage but was able to get some later that did not show as
much of the incident.

In my first capture

http://n5lp.net/Floyd1.JPG

the first fire-devil has just hit the highway, where it stalled a bit. This
one was shorter and broader than the following one.

http://n5lp.net/Floyd2.JPG

Both of them crossed the highway. It looked like it would have been pretty
interesting from the viewpoint of one of the cars.

These two picture frames are on the order of one second apart in real time.

I have never heard of this phenomenon before. Is there another term for it?

Larry Pardue 2I

Hmmmmmmmmmmm

Nice thermals



"Larry Pardue" wrote in message
...
Greetings:

Last week, around Wednesday, there was a large grass fire west of
Portales, New Mexico, USA. The wind was around 45 knots and it was warm.

Albuquerque television station KOB aired some video tape of the fire that
I found astounding. They showed two, what I would call, fire-devils. The
fire-devils were moving at near the speed of the wind and were rotating
rapidly and in fact looked just like dust-devils made of fire. I did not
record the early footage but was able to get some later that did not show
as much of the incident.

In my first capture

http://n5lp.net/Floyd1.JPG

the first fire-devil has just hit the highway, where it stalled a bit.
This one was shorter and broader than the following one.

http://n5lp.net/Floyd2.JPG

Both of them crossed the highway. It looked like it would have been
pretty interesting from the viewpoint of one of the cars.

These two picture frames are on the order of one second apart in real
time.

I have never heard of this phenomenon before. Is there another term for
it?

Larry Pardue 2I

Jack Daniels wrote:
Hmmmmmmmmmmm

Nice thermals


Look at this, an artificial thermal generator:

http://vortexengine.ca/

"Larry Pardue" wrote in message
...
Greetings:

Last week, around Wednesday, there was a large grass fire west of
Portales,
New Mexico, USA. The wind was around 45 knots and it was warm.

Albuquerque television station KOB aired some video tape of the fire that
I
found astounding. They showed two, what I would call, fire-devils. The
fire-devils were moving at near the speed of the wind and were rotating
rapidly and in fact looked just like dust-devils made of fire. I did not
record the early footage but was able to get some later that did not show
as
much of the incident.

In my first capture

http://n5lp.net/Floyd1.JPG

the first fire-devil has just hit the highway, where it stalled a bit.
This
one was shorter and broader than the following one.

http://n5lp.net/Floyd2.JPG

Both of them crossed the highway. It looked like it would have been
pretty
interesting from the viewpoint of one of the cars.

These two picture frames are on the order of one second apart in real
time.

I have never heard of this phenomenon before. Is there another term for
it?

Larry Pardue 2I



They would be familiar to people watching Southern California brush fires.
Incendiary bombing raids in WWII produced fire tornadoes that ripped
buildings apart making them burn even faster. They called them
'Firestorms'.

Hijacking this thread a bit, there is an interesting thread on Dr. Jack's
forum about thermal rotation. A thought is that our flight computers might
be able to detect thermal rotation and then suggest a turn direction to
maximize climb.

Bill Daniels

If thermals rotate, why don't the clouds rotate?

W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.).
Remove "ic" to reply.


"Bill Daniels" wrote in message
...

They would be familiar to people watching Southern California brush fires.
Incendiary bombing raids in WWII produced fire tornadoes that ripped
buildings apart making them burn even faster. They called them
'Firestorms'.

Hijacking this thread a bit, there is an interesting thread on Dr. Jack's
forum about thermal rotation. A thought is that our flight computers
might
be able to detect thermal rotation and then suggest a turn direction to
maximize climb.

Bill Daniels

Marc Ramsey wrote in
. net:

http://vortexengine.ca/

Wanna buy a bridge to go with that Atmospheric Vortex Engine?
-Bob

They do.. ever see the underside of a storm just before the tornado shows
itself?

Also, Doppler study of developing thunderstorms show rising rotation within
the cloud as it builds..

I'll have to go find that web page on that...
BT

"W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.)." wrote in message
...
If thermals rotate, why don't the clouds rotate?

W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.).
Remove "ic" to reply.


"Bill Daniels" wrote in message
...

They would be familiar to people watching Southern California brush
fires.
Incendiary bombing raids in WWII produced fire tornadoes that ripped
buildings apart making them burn even faster. They called them
'Firestorms'.

Hijacking this thread a bit, there is an interesting thread on Dr. Jack's
forum about thermal rotation. A thought is that our flight computers
might
be able to detect thermal rotation and then suggest a turn direction to
maximize climb.

Bill Daniels

"W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.)." wrote in message
...
If thermals rotate, why don't the clouds rotate?


I take it you haven't been to a trailer park in Oklahoma in tornado season.

Bill Daniels

W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.). wrote:
If thermals rotate, why don't the clouds rotate?

Apparently, most thermals lose what rotation they have by the time the
cloud forms, or perhaps forming a cloud causes the end of the rotation.
I have seen (albeit rarely) dust devils that went to cloud base at 6000'
to 8000' agl, but did not notice any rotation in the cloud itself. The
diameter of the dust devil was much less than that cloud diameter, so I
would not expect the entire cloud to rotate.

Of course, unless you intend to fly in a cloud (not likely for us in the
USA), it's direction of rotation isn't important.


--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

Eric Greenwell a écrit :
W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.). wrote:
If thermals rotate, why don't the clouds rotate?

Apparently, most thermals lose what rotation they have by the time the
cloud forms, or perhaps forming a cloud causes the end of the rotation.
I have seen (albeit rarely) dust devils that went to cloud base at 6000'
to 8000' agl, but did not notice any rotation in the cloud itself. The
diameter of the dust devil was much less than that cloud diameter, so I
would not expect the entire cloud to rotate.

If the rotation is stationary, you cannot see the rotation of the cloud,
just as you cannot see lenticular clouds move... But if there are dust
devils, clouds do rotate !


--
Denis

R. Parce que ça rompt le cours normal de la conversation !!!
Q. Pourquoi ne faut-il pas répondre au-dessus de la question ?