Video footage from Friday shows a rotating inferno surrounded by smoke in the Pacific Palisades fire that has devastated the LA area.

But Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, told USA TODAY that it instead appears to be an example of a fire whirl, which is “more akin to a dust devil than a tornado” and is less severe.

Fire devils or "firenados" are not really tornadoes at all. A tornado forms downwards from ... actually has more in common with a whirlwind or dust devil, as they form from the ground upwards.