dust devil

A dust devil seen in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, in 1993 A dust devil (also known regionally as a dirt devil) is a strong, well-formed, and relatively short-lived whirlwind. Its size ranges from small to large—0.5 m (18 in) and a few yards or metres tall to more than 10 m (30 ft) wide and more than 1 km (1⁄2 mile) tall. The primary vertical motion is upward. Dust devils are usually harmless, but can on rare occasions grow strong enough to endanger both people and property.

While they are comparable to tornadoes in that both are a weather phenomenon involving a vertically oriented rotating column of wind, dust devils typically form under sunny conditions during fair weather, rarely coming close to the intensity of a tornado.