Video captures powerful fire tornado in California as crews continue to fight multiple blazes across the state

• Video taken by the US National Forest Service captured a fire-induced tornado last month.
• The incident happened near the California-Oregon border at the site of a raging wildfire.
• As wildfires increase in drought-ravaged California, fire tornadoes will too, experts told the BBC.

A rare fire-induced tornado took hold near the California-Oregon border last month amid a string of wildfires scattered throughout the state as severe heat and drought ravage the wildfire-prone territory.

The US Forest Service captured video of the extreme weather condition, describing it as a "spinning vortex column of ascending hot air and gases rising from a fire."

The uncommon weather occurrence was spotted at the Tennant fire in Klamath National Forest on June 29. Video of the tornado shows black smoke spinning near the fire's flames.

Fire tornadoes are just one more sign of the worsening climate crisis, especially in California, where an ongoing drought is ravaging the state.

The phenomenon occurs when already-swirling winds are heated by a wildfire's flames and rise to form a spinning column comprised of smoke and flames, according to BBC News.

Last month's fire tornado was so powerful, the National Weather Service's radar picked it up, capturing as much as 30 minutes of the rotation, meteorologist Charles Smith told the Los Angeles Times.

Captain Tom Stokesberry of the Tennant fire's incident team told the newspaper it was one of the first times a fire tornado registered on radar and was captured by video.

The spiral even uprooted some trees, he said.

The Tennant fire has scorched more than 10,000 acres and was 81% contained as of Thursday, the LA Times reported. Crews throughout the state are still battling several other wildfires.

As wildfires increase, fire tornadoes will too, experts told BBC.