A Rural Fire Service (RFS) spokesperson said the Sir Ivan Fire was burning in catastrophic conditions so intense it turned pyro-convective.
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On Sunday, February 12 the Sir Ivan Fire east of Dunedoo was unable to be contained, and burnt so big and fast it created its own thunderstorm.
RFS public liaison officer for the Sir Ivan Fire incident management team, Angela Daly, said the storm travelled from above the fire to around 100 kilometres down the road.
“When a fire goes pyro-convective it’s channeling those upper atmosphere winds and becomes very, very unstable,” she said.
“That thunderstorm can collapse at any time, so when it does it creates a huge down-draft and spreads winds in all directions. When the southerly came through it started pushing it further to the north and toward the townships of Leadville and Coolah.
“That’s what caused the fire to spread to roughly 50,000 hectares in a day.”