by Ryan Overton  Earlier today the National Weather Service here
in Anchorage posted a link on their facebook showing a video
from the interior where the wild fires are burning. Here is the
link-   If you watch carefully you can see a counter-clockwise
rotation in the smoke of the fire. This nearly resembles a
tornado. How though does the smoke of a fire spin like this. One
simple word - SHEAR-   No, not the shears you have a home for
cutting hair. Wind Shear! At the surface you can have winds
blowing to the east, but at 50 feet above the surface the winds
can be blowing to the Northeast and at 100 feet the winds
blowing to the North. This causes things to spiral and also an
ingredient for a tornado.  Heat already has the ability to rise
and when wind shear is involved with the smoke from wildfires
not only can you see the smoke you see the rotation.   Here is
another video showing wind shear at different elevations-   And
for all the pilots out there, its a nightmare and causes
turbulence as well.    Ryan Ov