'Incredibly rare' fire tornado captured on video by B.C. wildfire crews

Crews working on a wildfire in British Columbia captured footage ofa rare fire whirl, or fire tornado, the B.C. Wildfire Service says.

Video posted to social media Tuesday by the BCWS shows a giant vortex of gas and flame disappearing into the night sky in the area of Gun Lake north of Pemberton, B.C., on Thursday.

The service says the footage was captured by firefighters battling the Downton Lake wildfire.

Calling itan "incredibly rare phenomenon," the servicesays a combination of extreme fire intensity, plummeting humidity and very low dew point, which measures the quantity of moisture in the air,produced conditions that created the fire whirl.

CBC science and climate specialist Darius Mahdavisays fire whirls occur under a unique set ofconditions.

"To get a fire whirl, you need an intense wildfire, strong winds, and rotation and instability in the atmosphere," Mahdavi said. "The dry,cold front that moved through last week provided all of those things as winds blew down hillsides.

"Extremely low humidity and strong winds caused the wildfire to grow more intense really quickly, and a massive difference in air temperatures drove some serious instability in the atmosphere."

The service says on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that these "unique conditions'' are not usually experienced in B.C.

The Downton Lake wildfire is located 300 kilometres north of Vancouver, with Gun Lake being a popular recreational area in the summertime.

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