Hey Ray: What is a 'dust devil?'
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - While dust devils look like tornadoes, they are much different. Especially with the ingredients that cause one to form.
So, what exactly is a dust devil?
They are dust-filled, swirling columns of air. These are usually much smaller and much less intense than tornadoes. According to the National Weather Service, they usually have a diameter between 10 and 300 feet and can reach between 500 and 1000 feet into the sky.
That still probably sounds like a small tornado, but they do have major differences.
For one, they often form under clear skies, while tornadoes need a thunderstorm to form. That means they form from the sky and drop down. Dust devils form from the ground up!
That is because of their main ingredient, which is major heating of the Earth's surface. When the skies are clear, the Sun heats the ground to a level higher than the surrounding air.
This causes the air to rise rapidly, creating an area of low pressure.
Air then rushes in to fill the area of low pressure, and that increases the circulation.
As those processes intensify, they will pick up dust, dirt, and debris.
This creates what you see in the air.
The swirling winds can sometimes get over 60 mph, and that is fast enough to cause damage to small structures and light objects, so you certainly would not want to hang out near one.
When cooler air starts to get pulled into the circulation, all the processes we just discussed gets interrupted. This kills the circulation, ending the dust devil.
