In 2001 I found these scorched thistles in the huge Milk Hill formation. The thistles had not been flattened but scorched; the lowest part of the stems however were still normal and green, as you can see on the second photograph. The scorching had only occurred just above the ground.
In the same formation, I discovered three small balls of dried grass. At first I thought they were the nests of field mice. But when I took a closer look, I saw that these balls of grass were not lying seperately on the ground, as is the case with mice nests. This grass was still attached to its roots and only the lowest parts of the grass stems were normal and green. The grass had obviously been dried and turned into a ball by some sort of heat source. This indicates in the direction of a spiraling air stream, just like the
Mind the small dot, bottom left:
this is a helicopter (with its shadow at the bottom).
This gives you a good impression of this formation's huge dimensions...
