Dust devil crops up in Portsmouth
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — A dust devil blew briskly, but briefly, outside Manor High School Thursday.
Around 3:20 p.m., alert WAVY viewer Dallas Taylor spotted the dust devil, which is a common wind phenomenon that happens all over the world. It was blowing on one of the school’s athletic fields.
According to the National Weather Service, they are dust-filled vortices created by strong surface heating, and are generally smaller and not as intense as a tornado.
“Dust devils form in areas of strong surface heating, usually at the interface between different surface types, such as asphalt and dirt, or even irrigated fields and dirt roads,” the National Weather Service says. “Typically, they occur under clear skies and light winds, when the ground can warm the air to temperatures well above the temperatures just above the ground.”
Typical dust devils have diameters ranging from 10 to 300 feet, with an average height of 500 to 1,000 feet, and they last for just a few minutes before they dissipate. They can have wind speeds of up to 60 mph.
Below are two other dust devils WAVY viewers sent to us back in 2017.
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