What is a Firestorm?
A firestorm is a huge fire created when flames are so intense that they create and sustain their own wind system. Depending on the stack effect, also known as the chimney effect, the heat of the fire creates such a strong updraft that adjacent air is strongly drawn in, creating fierce winds that blows towards the center of the fire. A firestorm is especially likely to occur where there are gulf stream winds feeding it, or the temperature inversion layer is pierced by hot air from the fire. Firestorms are likely to occur whenever there is a sufficiently large fire. Well-known firestorms have occurred both in natural conditions, such as the Great Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin, or the Ash Wednesday fires in southeast Australia, and artificial conditions, such as in the aerial bombings of Hamburg, Dresden, and Tokyo or the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One might think that the wind traveling towards the center of the fire would prevent it from being spread outwards, but this is
