A tornado inside a bushfire near homes on the outskirts of Bilpin, Sydney, in November last yearAustralia’s devastating “black summer” of wildfires triggered a surge in freak thunder and lightning storms that can whip up “firenadoes”. The storms are unusual weather events that produce extreme winds, lightning, tornadoes and black hail. Their unpredictable nature can rapidly change the expected path of fires and ignite fresh blazes. Between the early 1980s and the 2018-19 season, there were 60 recorded fire-generated thunderstorms in southeastern Australia. The figure is contained in an official report into the fires released today by the New

Source: The Times August 25, 2020 16:15 UTC