They look like tornadoes and they cause destruction like a tornado.

Except they’re really made of scalding hot white ash from the pyroclastic flow from Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung which has been in the midst of major eruptions.

A web video released on YouTube is showing a  massive pyroclastic flow rushing down the mountain and destroying everything in its path with hot gas and ash.  In the wake of the flow, the video shows multiple tornado-like vortexes that continue to spin and create debris.

Scientists say the twisters technically aren’t tornadoes because there is no cumulonimbus cloud at the top.  The phenomenons are more like dust devils seen throughout the desert southwest.  Heat from the flow causes hot air near the ground to rapidly rise.

The smoke from the volcano is not really smoke but vaporized rock from the heat of the volcano.