Can there be a snow tornado or maybe a fire tornado?

Answer 1

The fire tornado you are referring to is heat rising from the flames.....it swirls up and around bringing flames, dust, dirt, and debris with it...looking like a tornado....however...some forest fires are known to be strong enough to create there own atmospheric conditions for wind and lightening....but not strong enough to produce a tornado.

Answer 2

You couldn't really have a snow or fire tornado, but you could have a tornado with snow or fire in it. If there was somehow snow on the ground when a tornado comes through, the snow would be carried into the tornado. (This is extremely unlikely, because it is almost never cold enough for snow to be on the ground when you have a tornado.) As one of the answerers stated, a flammable object could catch fire and be carried into a tornado.

Answer 3

Fire tornadoes are rare, but they do happen. They mostly occur when something along the lines of an oil barrel (usually something with much more oil though) gets ignited due to friction against an object and is then carried by the tornado. The oil keeps it from going out quickly. But for some odd reason i doubt the 'snow tornado'.

Answer 4

There can indeed be "fire tornados". It's caused by the rapid rising of heat combining with the cooler air above the fire, causing rotation of the air (and thus the fire). But no, there are no 'snow tornados'. The closest thing you'd get would be a small wind eddy like a dust devil. The reason there can't be snow tornados is because the atmospheric conditions aren't right to create a tornado, tornados are caused by the rising of warm air and the falling of cold air, when they mix it causes rotation. In the snow, chances are 99.99999% that there's no warm air to mix with the cold to create rotation, hence no tornado.

Answer 5

There can be fire tornadoes. Usually this happens when something on fire generates a local updraft. There was a famous incident at a lumberyard fire in, I think, Canada. You can also manufacture your own as shown at http://kutv.com/peterrosen/local_blogentry_332163749.html .

A snow tornado is less likely. Most tornadoes form in thunder storms, and thunderstorms don't happen much when it snows. You could have a whirlwind during a snowstorm, though. That would be during a blizzard. It wouldn't suck up, though, just blow snow around and create a whiteout.

Answer 6

I believe I have seen on documentaries sort of like whirlwinds during forest fires. I think the heat creates the tornado like winds because the heat from the flames combine with the cooler air.

Answer 7

All tornadoes are electric in nature, but the stronger ones can burn the surface underneath the tornado. Ones that are strong enough will create surface features like those found on Mars. You can see where the energy touched down and lifted off the ground several times, with lightning strikes created pits around area.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/Bigpappadiaz/051111lavachannels.gif

Firey tornadoes exist on the Sun, and the energy travelling through the surface of the Sun directs this energy towards sunspots.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/Bigpappadiaz/041015solar-tornado.jpg
Solar tornado bridge on the left, demonstration of a firey tornado on the right. The centrifugal force has pulled the firey material towards the outer walls, while the vortex in the center creates a dark "stripe" down the middle.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/Bigpappadiaz/sun2.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/Bigpappadiaz/050617penumbra.jpg
Electric solar flares they are. This is called magnetic reconnection:
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/Bigpappadiaz/040830magnetic.jpg

So anyways, firey tornadoes are all over the Sun, but unlike our planet this tornadoes can be seen to be on their side. This tornadoes gather and pull all the energy towards the sunspot for some reason, but it's no doubt the build up of this energy that causes the massive solar flares we see eplode out of them.

Answer 8

yes definitely. When a fierce tropical hurricane (tornado) somehow finds a source of fuel it can easily start burning.

Answer 9

In the book of Exodus, God created a pilar of fire at night for the people to follow....

Answer 10

"Fire tornados" are called firestorms.