‘Smokenado’ Video Sparks Fear in Alabama; Is It Real or Fake? Tornado of Smoke from Fire Explained

A recycling and salvaging plant in Burnsville, Central Alabama, caught fire last August 2, and spectators found something both frightening and awe-inspiring: a smokenado.

A rising pillar of spinning smoke was caught on camera, with the now-viral video being taken by a Central Alabama Electric Cooperative lineman. Local news outlets report that the electric cooperative's crews were waiting for the fire to be controlled down to a level where they can start working on the affected power lines. Sharing the original video on their Facebook page, the CAEC shared that their linemen caught the "amazing yet shocking" smokenado and extended their gratitude to the first responders.

The fire, according to local news outlet WSFA, has been raging for three days by August 3. So far, no injuries have been reported. While the investigation remains ongoing, the local report says that a lightning strike might have ignited the fire.

(Photo: Central Alabama Electric Cooperative)

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But How Is a Smokenado Formed?

The same report from WSFA clarified that the "smokenado" is "technically not a tornado," but a natural phenomenon that is a lot closer to a dust devil made of fire and smoke. According to the Technical Memorandum NWS CR-42 from the NOAA, a dust devil is defined as a "small but vigorous atmospheric circulation" that forms when highly unstable dry air near ground level is superheated, breaking the boundary layer, and starts to shoot upward. It is also classified as being a smaller member of a whole family of circulations that occur naturally in the atmosphere.

Additionally, a dust devil is a well-developed dust whirl that has a significant velocity despite its small circumference. The American Meteorological Society further adds that this event, which is similar to the Alabama smokenado, could cause minor damages ranked EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which is used in Canada and the US to rank tornadoes based on the damage they cause. They tend to form more on hot, calm days with clear skies, especially in dryer regions where the intense heating of the ground could lead to an abnormally steep temperature lapse rate in the first 100m of the atmosphere from ground level.

In the case of the Alabama smokenado, it was highly possible that the fire further accelerated the temperature lapse from the ground, and once the dust devil kicked off, it started siphoning smoke from the burning buildings, creating a blacker version of the usual brown pillar rising into the air.

From Ancient History to the Future

Dust devils have been described and documented as far back as 450 BCE, in the play "Antigone," written by Sophocles in Greece, as noted in an examination of Meteorology Among Ancient Greeks appearing in the Weather journal. Similar occurrences have been recorded across different cultures, and civilizations are known to have developed independently.

Aside from countless records of dust devils here on Earth, it is also likely that these events occur on Mars. Earlier this year, the Perseverance rover from NASA detected a dust devil in the Red Planet, crossing its landing site at the Jezero Crater.

"Spotted a dust devil. You can see it in the distance behind my robotic arm in this enhanced/processed view. The dust devil is moving right to left and creating whirlwinds of dust in its path," the team monitoring Perseverance wrote in a March 16 tweet.