Rare ‘firenado’ caught on video as it rips through countryside amid historic wildfires
A rare fire whirl, often called a “firenado,” was captured on video over Harney County in southeast Oregon as historic wildfires continue across the Pacific Northwest. Fire weather meteorologist Jon Bonk explained that the vortex forms when intense heat causes rising air to spin, drawing flames and debris into a rotating column. The phenomenon adds to the challenges faced by firefighters battling dozens of large fires that have burned roughly 1.2 million acres in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.
- ▪The video shows a towering column of fire and smoke rotating over an open field near Burns, Oregon, captured by a local resident.
- ▪Jon Bonk of the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center described the fire whirl as a vortex created by rising hot air, similar to a dust devil.
- ▪Nearly 50 fires are burning across Oregon and Washington, with the five largest accounting for about 1.2 million acres burned so far.
- ▪Smoke from the fires has degraded air quality throughout the region, though forecasts predict improvement as winds shift eastward.
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| Original publisher | New York Post |
| Canonical URL | https://nypost.com/2026/08/06/science/rare-firenado-forms-during-pacific-northwest-blaze/ |
| Publication time | Thu, 06 Aug 2026 14:05:06 -0400 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-06T18:25:57.027Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-06T18:25:57.027Z |
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| Excerpt source | publisher body |
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| Summary source text | contentText |
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| Cluster | _ar60To2v_tb · 1 stories |
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| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
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Science Rare ‘firenado’ caught on video as it rips through countryside amid historic wildfires By Ben Cost Published Aug. 6, 2026, 2:05 p.m. ET (function() { var overlay = document.getElementById("nyp-player-lcp-overlay"); if (!overlay) { return; } function hideOverlay() { overlay.remove(); } function afterDCL() { requestAnimationFrame(hideOverlay); } if (document.readyState === "loading") { document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", afterDCL, { once: true }); } else { afterDCL(); } })(); See more of our coverage in your search results. Add The New York Post on Google It’s a real disco inferno. A rare “firenado” was filmed whirling over Southeast Oregon amid the historic wildfires ravaging the Pacific Northwest.
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