Rare firenado caught on video as it rips through countryside amid historic wildfires

It’s a real disco inferno.A rare “firenado” was filmed whirling over Southeast Oregon amid the historic wildfires ravaging the Pacific Northwest.“What’s being shown in the video is what we term in fire weather meteorology as a fire whirl,” exclaimed Jon Bonk, a fire weather meteorologist with the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, KGW8 reported.In the fiery footage, captured by a resident of Burns in Harney County, a towering column of fire and smoke rotates over an open field as a blaze rages below.Coincidentally, “firenado” is a bit of a misnomer as these pyrotechnic twisters are not bona fide tornadoes.Rather, these smoldering vortices are actually created from the rising air that’s generated by the heat of a wildfire, according to Oregon Live.As this hot air ascends, it begins to spin and suck flames, burning debris and smoke into the funnel, “similar to how a dust devil forms,” explained Bonk. He believes this unusually large fire whirl formed due to intense heat.Large sparknatos — they can grow to hundreds of feet tall — are dangerous as they start new infernos well beyond the fire line, posing a threat to residents and firefighters alike.Last summer, a wildfire in eastern Utah sparked a “firenado” with 122-mph winds that left one home and several other outbuildings severely damaged.This flaming death dervish is the fallout from nearly 50 fires burning across Oregon and Washington, with the largest five fires in the Beaver State accounting for roughly 1.2 million acres burned so far, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.The blaze, which was ignited by a lightning strike on July 23, has since roared into Idaho as well.The flames have also shrouded the sky in smoke, triggering unhealthy to very unhealthy air quality in the Pacific Northwest this week, CNN reported.Thankfully, the air will clear somewhat on Thursday night as winds blow the smoke East....