Is a dust devil related in any way to a small tornado as both are a type of vortex and how high do they go?

Answer 1

Dust devils are not related to tornadoes at all. Tornadoes are extensions of vortices that form in cumulonimbus clouds and extend from the cloud to the ground. Dust devils are vortices that develop from the ground up.

Strong surface heating produces a very unstable layer of hot air close to the ground. It doesn't take much to get the air rising. Once it does, that parcel of hot air is less dense than the surrounding air and it keeps going up. Because it has some horizontal motion to start with, it rises in a vortex which is the most efficient way for it to move.

Interestingly, dust devils, like water going down a plughole, can revolve in either direction in each hemisphere. I have seen pairs of them rotating in opposite directions. Thunderstorms are large enough to be influenced by Coriolis so the direction of rotation of tornadoes is clockwise in the southern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the north. The origin of dust devils is much smaller than a thunderstorm and so Coriolis has little influence.

Answer 2

Here is an article that examines the similarities and differences between dust devils and tornadoes:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/051003_dust_devils.html


A tornado is a violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground extending from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud. I believe the current theory is they can extend miles into the thunderstorm, basically to the top. They often form from rotating storms called mesocyclones. Another type of tornado, called a landspout, forms when a spin in the atmosphere is ingested into the storm and are stretched, spinning faster as a result. Although they form differently, they are still considered tornadoes.

I don't know much about dust devils, just that they are not associated with cumulus clouds and form in surface heating.

Answer 3

No, they're totally different.

A dust devil is a vortex that starts from the ground and goes up. They can get as high as 10,000 feet, but they're not related to any clouds that may be in the area. That is, they don't form a connection between a cloud and the ground.

A tornado (large or small) is a vortex that starts up in the storm cloud and goes down to the ground. The tops of storm clouds that generate tornadoes can be as high as 60,000 feet.

Answer 4

When a miniature tornado known as the dust devil is within the confines of a corridor such as an alley way between two buildings the consistency of the air drafts give it more opportunity for growth in contrast to one developing in a large parking lot. I have seen some as high as 25 feet within city structures. I imagine they could get higher under the right conditions.

Answer 5

I saw a dust devil in a car park. It was only about 10 metres tall and went across for about half a minute.

Answer 6

A dust devil is a small tornado.