Looking like a twister out of Hell, a giant “fire tornado” was filmed above Idaho’s Soda Fire late last week and has now whipped across the Internet.

“This sucker was shooting flames 100 ft in the air before it passed right in front of the line,”  Craig Fluer wrote on Instagram, “all while dropping hot dirt and ash on our helmets.” (See more photos of fire tornados.)

Fire tornadoes are most closely related to dust devils and are distinct from the larger, more powerful tornadoes that develop from the large circulation patterns that can form in supercell thunderstorms. Dust devils form when hot air near the surface rises quickly through a cooler pocket of low-pressure air. As the air