Tornadoes And Dust Devils Can Be Weird. Here's Proof

A tumbleweed devil bears down on a motorist in Washington State.
Looks scary, but it was fine. 

Today, we have a few odd tornado videos. Just for fun, I guess.

On Friday, a tornado hit an area around Puebla, Mexico.

Did I say a tornado? I meant five tornadoes. Yes, five tornadoes all lined up like ducks in a row.

These were a type of twister known as landspout tornadoes. They aren't the classic, usually more dangerous ones that originate in a supercell thunderstorm, and lower to the ground to cause their destruction.

Landspouts are usually associated with less severe thunderstorms and spin up starting from the ground. While any tornado is dangerous, landspouts are usually less violent than their supercell counterparts. Still, if you happen to see a landspout, head for the basement.

It's certainly unusual to get five of them spinning up like in Puebla, Mexico.  Here's a compilation video



The next video isn't unusual for a tornado video, but it is quite odd for where it was filmed: Around Doha, Qatar.  Twisters are rare in Qatar but certainly do occur from time to time.



The final video isn't a tornado at all. It's a dust devil.  Except it's got a surprise element.  Dust devils are tight whirls of air that spin up on clear, sunny days.  The strongest ones can cause minor damage but they're usually harmless.

This one is more of a tumbleweed devil. So cool!  It happened recently in Washington State. I'm told the car was not seriously harmed. The driver is fine.

Dust And Other Weird Devils

Mostly during the warm times of year, dust devils swirl in open areas on sunny days. The sun heats the ground, producing updrafts. Breezes can start spinning the air and you get dust devils, that basically look like little tornadoes on nice days.

Dust devils are almost always harmless, but the strongest ones can cause some damage.  Sometimes you get some strange examples, like a couple of cool ones we'll highlight here.

In Elkhorn, West Virginia, a dust devil turned into a coal devil as it moved over a field of coal dust last week. I'm sure the air was just FINE to breathe inside this thing:



In the next video, taken more than a month ago, an unusually strong dust devil takes a palm tree for a spin in Phoenix, Arizona.  If that tree was a person, that person sure would be dizzy after this. Watch:



The final video was taken in July, 2018 near Blythe, California by Chris Mackie. This is along the Colorado River during a major wildfire. These fires can creatre whirls or "fire devils," or whatefer you want to call them that can by much more intense than regular dust devils.

This Blythe, California one started as a big, strong rotation in the wildfire, strong enough to uproot and fling trees. Wildfires create their own weather, so when the whirl kept going out onto the water it became a sort of intense waterspout.

On rare occasions, an intense wildfire can create its own intense thunderstorm that can actually produce real tornadoes. This might have been one of those cases. Really amazing!