A fire tornado caused by brush fires and strong winds has stopped motorway traffic as drivers in Brazil gawped at the rare phenomenon.
The whirlwind of flames burned through fields beside the road in the northwest city of Aracatuba in Sao Paulo state. But, as quickly as it appeared, the roaring twister fizzled down and just a smoldering line in the land remained.
The firestorm followed a drought which has led to brush fires across Brazil. Fire tornadoes, also known as fire whirls or fire devils, are rare and depend on certain air temperatures and currents to create a vertical, rotating column of air.
In 1923, a fire tornado ignited by the Great Kanto earthquake in Tokyo grew to the size of a large city and killed 38,000 people in 15 minutes. At the time most of the buildings in Japan were made from wood and fire spread from house to house, destroying the city.
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