Videos showed a towering column of smoke and flame spinning up over the Loyalton Fire on Saturday, in an incident that alarmed state weather officials.
“Firenadoes are an extreme weather phenomenon that can occur with rotating fire columns,” the U.S. National Weather Service in Reno, Nev., tweeted on Saturday. The NWS issued a tornado warning at the time due to “tornadic pyrocumulus” clouds of smoke in Roberts Canyon, Calif and reports are that this is the first time the NWS has ever issued a firenado warning.
Firenados have the ability to uproot trees that are 49 feet and taller.