Twisters???

[Jagno]

Yesterday I went out of town to shop at some of the wholesale nurseries a couple of hours from here. The forecast was spectacular, bright sunshine and a cool breeze without a cloud in the sky. Around noon my 20 year old calls me on my cell phone terribly shook up by what he'd experienced. He and his friend were watching a movie when all of a sudden he heard this horrible crashing sound and people screaming. He ran outside only to discover that neighbors from the next street had tried to get his attention to alert him to a twister that had formed and heading to my house. It hit ripping the awning completely off of my deck and sending it scattered across three acres. No one was hurt.

Now this was during a beautiful sunshiney day. What happened? The neighbors were having a cookout when they saw this thing come out of nowhere and had seen my son here earlier so tried to get here to warn him but the twister ran across 2 acres faster than they did. I can't find my weather for dummies book so help me out here. Now today I have to call my State Farm agent and explain this unusual event to them and this ought to be interesting for sure.

[Brent]

Strange... I have no idea.

[Brent]

I've asked some people on another board and it seems it could be a dustdevil or landspout. Those are typically very weak tornadoes, and the damage matches.

[Aslkahuna]

With clear skies, it was a dust devil. Dust Devils can be as strong as a F1 tornado which means that they can do a fair degree of damage. However, dust devils are NOT classified as tornadoes as they are not a violently rotating column of air connecting a cloud and the ground. We see strong deveils here in AZ every year and in fact have ebgun to see them this month as the ground heats up due to insolation.

Steve

[Brett Adair]

Yesterday I went out of town to shop at some of the wholesale nurseries a couple of hours from here. The forecast was spectacular, bright sunshine and a cool breeze without a cloud in the sky. Around noon my 20 year old calls me on my cell phone terribly shook up by what he'd experienced. He and his friend were watching a movie when all of a sudden he heard this horrible crashing sound and people screaming. He ran outside only to discover that neighbors from the next street had tried to get his attention to alert him to a twister that had formed and heading to my house. It hit ripping the awning completely off of my deck and sending it scattered across three acres. No one was hurt.

Now this was during a beautiful sunshiney day. What happened? The neighbors were having a cookout when they saw this thing come out of nowhere and had seen my son here earlier so tried to get here to warn him but the twister ran across 2 acres faster than they did. I can't find my weather for dummies book so help me out here. Now today I have to call my State Farm agent and explain this unusual event to them and this ought to be interesting for sure.

My soon to be fiance saw one a few weeks ago going down US HWY 280 in SRN Talladega Co., Alabama. It hit her van and jerked her almost off the road. It ended up being about 25-50 yards wide as it raced across the road into an area of dust where it reached its maximum size. Was pretty to see she said. The sun was shining brightly here as well at that time.

[BayouVenteux]

I don't know where in Louisiana you are writing from, but from the weather conditions we experienced in the Baton Rouge area this weekend, I would bet that what your son experienced was an encounter with an abnormally strong -- for this part of the world, anyway -- dust devil. With the sun's angle getting high enough to warm exposed soil, and the cool, breezy air enough to set off the instability between the surface heat and the cooler air above it, small dust devils are not a totally uncommon sight, especially around dry, dusty exposed soils and parking lots, etc.

Saturday and Sunday, the lack of significant rain over the last couple of weeks combined with the atmospheric conditions to make it ideal for some dust devils to form. In fact, I witnessed 4 or 5 small ones on empty lots and ball fields while driving around this weekend. I've read that they can last from just a few seconds up to several hours if the conditions are right. To have one with minimal tornadic speed wind is pretty rare, but even a 40-60 mile an hour wind cyclone is enough to toss lawn furniture and rip an awning.

[ohiostorm]

I remember I was on the playground in elementary school and saw dust spinning and ran to it. It was very strong for being so small. Almost knocked me down. Very awesome.

[depotoo]

we used to see them all the time during storm season in the fort worth area. they were really cool but it seemed they would show up with the traffic was the worst!