AST Weather Blog: Watch for dust devils as sunshine and heat continue

As the headline suggests, plenty of sunshine and heat are in the forecast.

With the dry conditions we’re experiencing, the ground is parched. High pressure overhead is keeping rain chances minimal, creating the perfect environment for dust devils to form.

Take a look at this video from last weekend. Dustin Brown shared security camera footage from outside Wintek USA on US 270 in Garland County. The video captures the entire process of a dust devil forming and dissipating.

So, what’s happening here? First, the sun heats certain areas of the ground so intensely that pockets of air start to rise. Although these pockets are initially invisible, they’re small areas of low pressure.

As the air continues to rise quickly, surrounding air rushes in to fill the space where the warmer air once was. This rising, spiraling air forms a vortex that lifts dust and debris from the ground, creating the dust devil.

At this point, the dust devil is at its peak, with winds within the vortex reaching around 45 mph. However, in just a few minutes, the surrounding air cools off enough that it can no longer sustain the upward motion. The air stabilizes, and the dust devil dissipates.

While dust devils can look impressive, they rarely cause significant damage.

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