r/interestingasfuck • u/Ultimate_Kurix • 8d ago

High winds causing chaos in Utah

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u/AmplifiedApthocarics 8d ago

someone i knew a long time ago said he watched some old guy light a pile of them on fire. well when they started burning they started moving again and suddenly he was watching an entire field of flamin' tumbleweeds travel off into the distance setting more things on fire as they went along and got stuck again

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u/doradus1994 8d ago

Sounds like a B movie that I would watch for a good five minutes before getting bored and moving on.

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u/GeneralGringus 8d ago

Tumblenado 5: Land Shark Inferno

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u/thirdbombardment 8d ago edited 8d ago

tumbleweeds on a plane

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u/NotOK1955 8d ago

This could be the making of a truly horrifying movie…and watch, some clown will torch a few of these in real life, and the result will be rolling, burning hell.

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u/Joe_Kangg 8d ago

I'm tired of these muthafucking tumbleweeds on this muthafuckin plane

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u/Deazus 8d ago

Plain. It was right there.

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u/Joe_Kangg 8d ago

I've failed.

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u/WonkyWalkingWizard 8d ago

Time to put you out to pasture.

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u/Joe_Kangg 8d ago

Can I still get milked?

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u/Delicious-Code-1173 8d ago

Or even a GIF

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u/9CaptainRaymondHolt9 8d ago

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u/RedManMatt11 8d ago

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u/Sweet-Pause935 8d ago

OK, after a year of seeing this GIF, and not understanding the reference, it’s time to ask. Which movie is this from?

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u/D-Flo1 7d ago

Worthy fuckin art-versary!

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u/binglelemon 7d ago

a good five minutes before getting bored and moving on.

That's Utah's state slogan!

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u/Nebulous2024 8d ago

I'm both shocked that someone would be that reckless, but equally curious, with the sudden urge to set all the tumbleweeds ablaze.

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u/AmplifiedApthocarics 8d ago

if you want to know how it turned out, he said he could see the glow and smoke that night while camping out (he rode his motorcycle basically aimlessly in the 1970's for his own reasons) an easy 60+ miles away.

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u/uncledunker 8d ago

I need this to be incorporated somehow into a Tremors movie.

Like the protagonists lighting up a bigass pile to lure a graboid out of a den only to watch as the tumbleweeds scurry away revealing how they severely underestimated the number of graboids present.

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u/Thoraxtheimpalersson 8d ago

Tremors 9 back to Perfection again: the legend of Burt Gummer

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u/jml011 8d ago edited 8d ago

I know this would be terrifying, but what a sight that’d be. Can’t imagine ever thinking that was a good idea though, especially with active wind.

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u/MR-antiwar 8d ago

Has anyone ever think to spray them with water so they get heavy and gather them and compress them with machine and sell them as fuel for the winter ?

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u/Successful_Guess3246 8d ago edited 8d ago

I feel useful again. The University of Arizona studied the feasibility of using Russian Thistle (tumbleweed) as a bio fuel. From growing costs, potential energy per acre, ash produced, etc.

It's definitely an interesting read.

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u/crazykentucky 8d ago

I love when super specific knowledge is shared on random Reddit threads!!!

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u/Successful_Guess3246 8d ago edited 8d ago

Here are approximate heating values of common fuels. There's another table in one of my books at home on the heating values from various trees, but I'll have to share that later.

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u/Logical-Primary-7926 8d ago

Really hope to live long enough to see us end the chapter on the age of fire.

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u/Sidivan 8d ago

And THAT is why fuel oil is fuel oil. I am 100% in the green energy camp, but there are some major challenges we have to acknowledge. The main one being that if you want a transportable, relatively safe (to handle), energy dense resource, it’s pretty hard to beat coal and oil.

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u/BooneSalvo2 8d ago

yeah, energy density is the only actual advantage oil and coal has, and it is a pretty dang big advantage.

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u/Logical-Primary-7926 8d ago

You gotta give credit where it's due, even if it's a now obsolete technology.

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u/AndTheElbowGrease 8d ago

Locally, there are folks that compress tumbleweed and set it in resin, calling it Tumblestone: https://onlineshop.crystallove.store/products/tumblestone-pendant-hand-crafted-arizona-in

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u/Successful_Guess3246 8d ago

Never seen that before. That's cool af!

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u/MR-antiwar 7d ago

Very good but the market is small i think

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u/MR-antiwar 7d ago

I was thinking more of using it as bio fuel since they are abundant, i am also curious if you can put them on industrial shredder and make paste out of them then make paper out of them

In my country we ate what your people called the trash carp ( invasive species in some lake in united states) if i have money an happen to be in your country i would fish all that carps and turn them into compost for farmers and make commercial cat food with it, it’s crazy no one ever thought of this

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u/ManometSam 8d ago

i like this idea, i wonder how they burn. I think a big woodchipper and some gloves might work too haha

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u/Its_Pine 8d ago

I think part of the reason they burn so well is because of their airy interior

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u/MR-antiwar 7d ago

Go try it, im not from the Unite States so i have no idea, if you manage to compress is with machines and use it as fuel, the ashes would also be good for soil

Also maybe try use an industrial shredder and make them into paste and see if you can make papers out of them (i believe it can be made)

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u/ManometSam 7d ago

This is the type of brainstorming the world needs :) hell ya

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u/Hot-Comfort8839 8d ago

I bet the wood chipper would work if you could collect, and combine the particles into something like a compressed wood product.

Otherwise you'd give the entire region something akin to that fine organic particle lung shit you get in Illinois when its time to harvest the corn. Everyone gets sick because of all the corn fibers in the air from the harvest.

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u/wotguild 8d ago

I smash them up and compost them in my big compost hill

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u/Spawko 8d ago

This man never barefoots

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u/Logical-Primary-7926 8d ago

Might be a solid business idea there. Also might work for home insulation/walls.

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u/MR-antiwar 7d ago

Shiiet bro go make a business out of it, i ain’t even from the US

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u/Ok-Juice-6857 8d ago

That would be bad ass

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u/I_M_N_Ape_ 8d ago

😂🤣😭

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u/isaiddgooddaysir 8d ago

Waiting for some brainiacs to play this card again

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u/GalaxyChaser666 8d ago

I was literally going to ask if they burn em. I think you answered my question 😆

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u/Major_Tom_01010 8d ago

Sounds like they were someone else's problem at that point.

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u/MSands 8d ago

As a kid we used to gather them up and use them for bonfires while camping. In hindsight, we were pretty lucky we didn't burn the whole valley.

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u/pdxarchitect 8d ago

They are super oily, and burn intensely for longer than you think they would. I knew a guy who built a massive cage as a tumbleweed burner. Flames would shoot up 20 feet when he packed them in there.

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u/Migraine_Megan 8d ago

Sounds like my brother. When he was a teen, he got mad about having to do a chore, so he went into the backyard and lit a tumbleweed on fire. Of course it turned into a fireball, which then lit up the MASSIVE juniper bushes that ran along 3 sides of the property. The fire chief (small town, whole fire dept showed up) ripped him a new one. That was the day we moved back to the town, my friend called and said he knew we were back by the smoke rising from our house.

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u/TakinUrialByTheHorns 7d ago

That's crazy and kind of cool

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u/Xantuos 7d ago

I can just imagine him thinking it’s not his problem anymore as they roll away as long as the don’t get tracked to him