Rare fire tornado warning issued in California

A rare weather occurrence -- a fire tornado -- formed Saturday in California.

The National Weather Service issued a warning for a pyrocumulonimbus cloud that formed out of the Loyalton Fire.

“Extremely dangerous fire behavior noted on the Loyalton Fire,” weather officials said on social media. “Rotating columns and potential for fire whirls.”

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds form out of intense rising heat creating a vortex of swirling wind, smoke, fire and dirt, CNN reported.

The technology to detect a fire tornado in real time is a relatively recent development, The Washington Post reported.

"(It is) a once-in-a-lifetime, career event," Wendell Hohmann, the meteorologist who issued the warning, told the Post.

Fire tornadoes are rare but deadly.

A 2018 fire tornado that formed out of the Carr Fire in Northern California killed a firefighter and a heavy equipment operator who was working to put out the flames, CNN reported.

The Loyalton Fire has consumed 20,000 acres and is 5% contained, CNN reported. Wildfires raging in California, Oregon and Colorado have scorched 100,000 acres.

Cox Media Group