Fire tornadoes are not uncommon in wildfires and there’s a long history of them (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_whirl https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire

Fire tornadoes are not uncommon in wildfires and there’s a long history of them (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_whirl https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_whirl). Why is that an “extreme weather sign”? That seems like an alarmist stretch to establish a connection to climate change. News media needs to be intentional and precise in how they are covering this particular fire whirl. For example the LA Times used the phrase “fire tornado” in their headline (https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-07-08/powerful-fire-tornado-caught-on-video-at-tennant-fire https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-07-08/powerful...) but the body of the article used the correct term, “fire whirl”. A tornado is a much more severe event and comes with ratings and requirements for classification. A fire whirl is closer to a “dust devil” and is a relatively minor event by comparison (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlwind https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlwind). Unfortunately the few articles I read aren’t clear on what the measured severity was or why it qualifies as a tornado versus whirl.