Dust devil

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 (18 in/half a metre wide and a few yards/metres tall) to large (more than 30 ft/10 m wide and more than half a mile/1 km 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.