Firecane
Encyclopedia
Firecane refers to a hypothetical confluence of meteorological and man-made disasters, whereby a hurricane crossing an oil-laden expanse of water generates lightning which ignites the flammable fossil fuel, creating a vortex of fire. A fearful imagining born of recent cataclysms in the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...

, the term has gained currency in New Orleans, the city inundated by Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

 in 2005, and which in 2010 was near the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which flowed unabated for three months in 2010, and continues to leak fresh oil. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry...

. The likelihood of such an occurrence has been dismissed by meteorologist Dr. Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground
Weather Underground (weather service)
Weather Underground is a commercial weather service that provides real-time weather information via the Internet. Weather Underground provides weather reports for most major cities across the world on its Web site, as well as local weather reports for newspapers and Web sites...

commercial weather service, who contends that wave action and rain water would quickly douse a fire set by a lightning strike on fresh oil. Lightning strikes from thunderstorms may cause isolated fires, as happened on a drill ship near the spill.

Another proposed scenario is that oil from the spill would be carried by hurricane winds and deposited over land, where hot weather could subsequently kindle flammable materials that have been strewn over a dry wooded landscape. In addition to being spread by rain and wind, there is concern that oil will be moved inland by a storm surge.

Absent apocalyptic visions of a firestorm, the Deepwater Horizon spill, coupled with the onset of the 2010 hurricane season, has generated speculation as to the possibility of increased ecological damage in the event of a powerful tropical storm in the region. Since such an event has not yet occurred, there is uncertainty as to whether a hurricane would exacerbate the effects of the spill, or as to how the presence of massive volumes of oil would alter the course of a major storm. Although Greg Jackson a Harvard professor disproves such quantum theories and concludes that it could happen, and it should not be played around with.

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