In the middle of the commotion caused by the Palisades Fire erupting once more on Friday, wild film captures the moments when a “firenado” broke out and swiftly moved towards Mandeville Canyon near Brentwood.
According to KCAL News Meteorologist Dani Ruberti, fire tornadoes—also known as fire whirls or fire devils—are generally uncommon, but in exceptional cases where a fire is so powerful, it can successfully form its own meteorological system.
“The heat is so incredibly intense that the air starts to rise and it starts to pull in the surrounding air … kind of creating that spinning vortex,” she explained. “The particles in there, they’re moving faster than on the outside, and that’s what causes the air to spin faster and give that look of a tornado.”
According to Ruberti, fire tornadoes can occasionally soar hundreds of feet in the air but only persist for a few minutes at a time.
Related: A wildfire in Oregon became so big that it developed its own meteorological system. This is how it can occur.
As of Saturday night, the fire had spread to around 24,000 acres, and it may spread farther as Los Angeles County has another Santa Ana wind storm this weekend and early next week.
A further set of destructive wildfires also affected Southern California in late 2024. In that case, one of the infernos was so powerful that the weather system it produced brought with it severe winds, rain, and hail.