This talk is a component of the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory 1918-1919 Seminar Series.  In this talk, radar and satellite observations are used to document the evolution of a rare, destructive, fire-generated vortex during the Carr fire on 26 July 2018 near Redding, California. The National Weather Service estimated that surface wind speeds in the vortex were in excess of 64 m/s, equivalent to an EF-3 tornado. Radar data show that the vortex formed within an antecedent region of cyclonic wind shear along the fire perimeter and immediately following rapid vertical development of the convective plume, which grew from 6 to 12 km aloft in just 15 min. The rapid plume development was linked to the release of moist instability in a pyrocumulonimbus(pyroCb). As the cloud grew, the vortex intensified and ascended, eventually reaching an altitude of 5,200 m. The role of the pyroCbin concentrating near-surface vorticity distinguishes this event from other fire-generated vortices and suggests dynamical similarities to nonmesocyclonictornadoes.

The talk will conclude with a forward-looking examination of the application of operation radar data to track both the plume dynamics and surface fire progression of other high impact wildfires including the Camp Fire that devastated Paradise, CA in November 2018.