Sunny Day Shakeup: Dust Devil at DFW

Just before 4p today, DFW Airport reported a "dust whirl" or dust devil.  No report on how strong this dust devil was and that's because usually these swirls of dirt & dust don't last very long or cause much, if any damage.

So what is a dust devil?  They form on sunny, hot & dry days with fairly light winds.  The ground heats unevenly & when a particular hot spot develops, the air can rise quickly because the hot air close to the ground is less dense than the cooler air above.  The rising air accelerates as it stretched above and starts rotating.  As more air rushes in, it also rotates and picks up dust and other light debris.  The dust devil can then travel along the ground for several minutes before it dissipates.

The height of a dust devil can reach 1,000 feet and wind speeds can approach 60 mph in the strongest dust devils.  Typically dust devils have maximum winds only in the 30-40 mph range.  They are common in the desert southwest, but we've seen more of them here in North Texas given our drought and hot weather recently.

Chopper 11 caught a dust devil earlier this month.  Check it out here.