The BulleTin • Thursday, July 29, 2021 A3
TODAY
Today is Thursday, July 29, the
210th day of 2021. There are 155
days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
In 1958, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower signed the National
Aeronautics and Space Act, cre-
ating NASA.
In 1856, German composer
Robert Schumann died in En-
denich at age 46.
In 1890, artist Vincent van
Gogh, 37, died of an apparently
self-inflicted gunshot wound in
Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
In 1914, transcontinental
telephone service in the U.S. be-
came operational with the first
test conversation between New
York and San Francisco. Massa-
chusetts’ Cape Cod Canal, offer-
ing a shortcut across the base
of the peninsula, was officially
opened to shipping traffic.
In 1965, The Beatles’ second fea-
ture film, “Help!,” had its world
premiere in London.
In 1967, an accidental rocket
launch on the deck of the super-
carrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf
of Tonkin resulted in a fire and
explosions that killed 134 ser-
vicemen. Among the survivors
was future Arizona senator John
McCain, a U.S. Navy lieutenant
commander who narrowly es-
caped with his life.
In 1968, Pope Paul the Sixth
reaffirmed the Roman Catholic
Church’s stance against artificial
methods of birth control.
In 1974, singer Cass Elliot died in
a London hotel room at age 32.
In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford
became the first U.S. president
to visit the site of the Nazi con-
centration camp Auschwitz in
Poland.
In 1981, Britain’s Prince Charles
married Lady Diana Spencer in a
glittering ceremony at St. Paul’s
Cathedral in London. (The cou-
ple divorced in 1996.)
In 1986, a federal jury in New
York found that the National
Football League had committed
an antitrust violation against
the rival United States Football
League. But in a hollow victory
for the USFL, the jury ordered
the NFL to pay token damages
of only three dollars.
In 1999, a former day trader,
apparently upset over stock loss-
es, opened fire in two Atlanta
brokerage offices, killing nine
people and wounding 13 be-
fore shooting himself to death;
authorities said Mark O. Barton
had also killed his wife and two
children.
Ten years ago: Norway began
burying the dead, a week after
an anti-Muslim extremist killed
77 people in a bombing and
shooting rampage. Delaware
carried out its first execution
since 2005, putting to death
Robert Jackson III, who was
convicted of killing a woman,
Elizabeth Girardi, with an ax
during a burglary.
Five years ago: Pope Francis
visited the former Nazi death
factory at Auschwitz and Birke-
nau in southern Poland, meet-
ing with concentration camp
survivors as well as aging saviors
who helped Jews escape certain
doom.
One year ago: The body of the
late Democratic congressman
and civil rights leader John Lewis
arrived in Atlanta; people lined
the streets as the hearse carry-
ing Lewis’ body moved through
downtown before a ceremony
at the Capitol rotunda, where
Lewis was lauded as a warrior
and a hero. Both sides declared
victory in a political fight over
the deployment of federal
agents to guard a U.S. court-
house that was targeted during
violent protests in Portland
after the governor announced
that the officers would start to
withdraw. The U.S. Energy Infor-
mation Administration said en-
ergy consumption in the United
States plummeted to its lowest
level in 30 years in the spring as
the economy largely shut down.
Connie Culp, the recipient of the
first partial face transplant in the
United States, died at the age of
57, almost a dozen years after
the groundbreaking operation.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Rob-
ert Fuller is 88. Actor Roz Kelly is
79. Rock musician Neal Doughty
(REO Speedwagon) is 75. Marilyn
Tucker Quayle, wife of former
Vice President Dan Quayle, is 72.
Actor Mike Starr is 71. Documen-
tary maker Ken Burns is 68. Style
guru Tim Gunn is 68. Rock sing-
er-musician Geddy Lee (Rush)
is 68. Rock singer Patti Scialfa is
68. Actor Kevin Chapman is 59.
Actor/comedian Dean Haglund
is 56. Rock musician Chris Gor-
man is 54. Actor Tim Omundson
is 52. Actor Wil Wheaton is 49.
R&B singer Wanya Morris (Boyz
II Men) is 48. Hip-hop DJ/music
producer Danger Mouse is 44.
Actor Cait Fairbanks is 28.
— Associated Press
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
It’s confirmed: Bootleg Fire fueled tornado
BY JOE SIESS
(Klamath Falls) Herald and News
“A decade ago, we could not have even imagined this. But here we are.”
On July 18, the Bootleg Fire
generated what appeared to
be a flaming tornado, sweep-
ing skyward from the trees
and into the towering thun-
derheads above.
Officials confirmed Mon-
day that it was an actual tor-
nado, fueled by the fire itself.
According to Bruno Ro-
driguez, an incident meteo-
rologist assigned to the Boot-
leg Fire, the phenomenon
occurred on the southeast
side of the blaze on a day of
extreme fire behavior. Ro-
driguez said that day the fire
generated pyrocumulus or
pyrocumulonimbus clouds
that rose higher than 30,000
feet into the stratosphere —
roughly the altitude where
most commercial airplanes
fly.
Those massive clouds, in
combination with intense
heat generated by the fire on
the ground, intensified an up-
draft, according to Rodriguez.
That in turn pulled and ro-
tated air up from the surface
to the base of the fire-pro-
duced clouds — creating a lit-
eral tornado.
The Bootleg tornado was
far beyond the more common
fire whirl phenomenon, Ro-
driguez said.
Fire whirls are smaller, sur-
face-based vortices. But Ro-
driguez said the Bootleg tor-
nado and others like it “are
essentially the same as a reg-
ular tornado” — but with the
added element of fire.
The tornado is not actually
made of fire, Rodriguez clari-
fied, but flames from the trees
and other vegetation swirls
around in wind generated by
the tornado.
Ryan Sandler, a meteorol-
— Neil Lareau, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Nevada
Bootleg Fire Incident Command via AP, file
Bootleg Fire
statistics
The Bootleg Fire had burned
413,400 acres in Klamath
and Lake counties as of
Wednesday afternoon, ac-
cording to InciWeb. Contain-
ment was estimated at 53%.
The fire had destroyed 161
residences, 247 outbuildings
and 342 vehicles.
ogist at the National Weather
Service in Medford, explained
that while the fire tornado
generated by the Bootleg Fire
is in fact, a tornado, the Na-
tional Weather Service is cur-
In this drone photo, a pyrocumulus cloud, also known as a fire cloud,
is seen over the Bootleg Fire in Klamath and Lake counties July 14.
Smoke and heat are creating “fire clouds” over the blaze — dan-
gerous columns of smoke and ash that can reach up to 30,000 feet
and are visible for more than 100 miles away. Authorities put these
clouds at the top of the list of the extreme fire behavior they are see-
ing on the Bootleg Fire.
rently unsure how to catego-
rize it.
While a traditional tor-
nado often travels for many
miles and can also be miles
wide, a fire tornado relies on
the updraft created by the
fire and the cumulus clouds
above to form and draw en-
ergy, Sandler said. Given
those constraints, a typical
fire tornado can only travel
a few miles at most, and is
therefore not a threat to hu-
man life if it occurs in a rel-
atively remote area like the
Fremont-Winema National
Forest.
Once the fire tornado gets
too far away from the heat of
the fire it starts to lose force
and its shape, Sandler said.
Neil Lareau, a professor of
atmospheric science at the
University of Nevada, said he
speculates the Bootleg torna-
do’s strength to be akin to an
EF2-type tornado. EF2 tor-
nadoes are characterized by
wind speeds between 111 and
135 miles per hour. Evidence
on the ground, such as exten-
sive tree damage and scour-
ing of road surface and soil,
are indicative of winds of that
magnitude.
“Prior to last year, there
had only been two well-docu-
mented tornado strength vor-
tices generated by fires,” Lar-
eau said. “A decade ago, we
could not have even imagined
this. But here we are.”
Lareau, who is currently
working on a National Sci-
ence Foundation funded proj-
ect focused on fire-generated
tornadoes, said studying these
kinds of events is increasing
in importance.
The project, Lareau said,
was motivated by confirmed
fire tornadoes amid the mas-
sive wildfires of 2020.
“But every time a new tor-
nado happens, we will work
to understand the physics of
what is going on, and build up
a case library to identify when
a fire is getting close to pro-
ducing these sorts of things,”
he said.
The study of fire tornadoes
is “really a frontier of science,”
Lareau said, and the objective
of his research is to under-
stand which fires will produce
tornadoes and when, and to
identify the signals of when
one of these events will hap-
pen.
That information is im-
portant to helping stop the
spread of these major wild-
fires, and giving fire crews as
much information as possible
in order to stay safe and pro-
tect nearby communities.
NIKE EXTORTION
Michael Avenatti
asks to serve his
sentence in Oregon
Sheridan is often the prison
of choice for local white-collar
You would think that
criminals. That’s for obvious
Michael Avenatti had enough
reasons, said Portland law-
of Oregon.
yer Kevin Sali: Their families,
Avenatti’s fabulous life as
their businesses (or what’s left
Donald Trump antagonist, ca- of them) and their lawyers are
ble news provocateur
typically here.
and social media phe-
Ultimately, the U.S.
nomenon collapsed
Bureau of Prisons
after he took on the
will make the call on
state’s largest home-
where Avenatti will
grown company,
do his time. A bu-
Nike.
reau spokeswoman
But the humili-
said via email that it
Avenatti
ated celebrity law-
doesn’t disclose where
yer — sentenced to
convicted felons will
30 months after being found
be housed until they report to
guilty of trying to extort $20
prison.
million out of Nike — wants
In Avenatti’s case, that date
to come to Oregon to do his
is Sept. 15. His lawyer did not
time. Transcripts of Avenat-
respond to emails or a phone
ti’s July 8 sentencing hearing
call.
confirm that Avenatti asked to
Avenatti threatened to ex-
be housed in the Federal Cor- pose what he said was corrup-
rectional Institute in Sheridan. tion by Nike in connection
U.S. District Court Judge Paul with high school basketball
Gardephe agreed to recom-
players if the sports-apparel
mend it.
company didn’t pay his client
Local attorneys were at a
and hire him to conduct an in-
loss to explain. Back in the
ternal investigation. In a meet-
day, when CNN still reported
ing at the Manhattan offices
on Avenatti’s latest tweet, he
of one of Nike’s law firms, Av-
lived and practiced law out of
enatti informed them the price
a sleek glass tower on the bor- of a proper internal investiga-
der of Beverly Hills in South-
tion would be in the $20 mil-
ern California.
lion range.
“It seems unusual because
Nike officials immediately
the only connection I’ve heard went to federal prosecutors in
of between Avenatti and Or-
the Southern District of New
egon is that this is where his
York to report the blackmail
victim (Nike) resides,” said
attempt. At the prosecutors’ re-
David Angeli, a Portland law-
quest, Nike lawyers wore wires
yer.
into subsequent meetings.
Sheridan, a small town in
A jury found Avenatti guilty
Yamhill County, is just 47
on all counts on Feb. 13.
miles away from Nike’s world
The sentencing hearing was
headquarters. Most of the
not all bad for Avenatti. Under
Sheridan prison is a standard
federal sentencing guidelines,
medium security prison. But
he faced more than 9 years in
there’s also a minimum secu-
prison. Prosecutors sought a
rity camp.
105-month sentence.
BY JEFF MANNING
The Oregonian
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