The combination of high winds and wildfires in the Aracatuba municipality in Sao Paulo, Brazil, produced just such a phenomenon, caught on video. The region has been experiencing weeks of drought that have led to brush fires.
Fire tornadoes, known officially as fire whirls, are rare. In 1923, the Great Kanto earthquake in Tokyo set off a massive fire whirl that killed 38,000 people. And early one April morning in 1926, lightning hit oil tanks at the Union Oil Co. in San Luis Obispo, Calif., setting off a huge explosion that shattered windows and shook the town. The conditions around the fire produced fire whirls that killed two people.
So far, reports do not indicate that the Brazil fire tornado caused anything more serious than scorched fields and jammed traffic. And a fire tornado video on a Wednesday morning is too good to pass up.