What wind phenomena is similar to a dust devil?

Question

I witnessed something like a small but very intense dust devil, only a few metres high but enough to uproot vegetation and cut a swathe through a small river. Unlike a dust devil it formed and travelled over rough grassland in overcast conditions of perhaps 10 Celsius. It travelled for about 500 metres at about 10kmh (6mph) before dissipating. Any ideas?

Answer 1

This description does not reveal any of the characteristics of a tornado (associated tstm, vertical extent). It is not a dust devil which forms under very hot surface temperatures and strong lapse rates. I am at a loss to explain it, unless there were other evidences of turbulence which would suggest this to be just a very strong eddy vortex. A good reason to carry a camera. This would perhaps make an interesting letter to the editor of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Answer 2

I believe all the above answers are incorrect. The conditions you describe makes it sound more like a "landspout" rather than a tornado. It is like a cross between a dust devil and tornado. They are most common in Eastern Colorado and the high plains of North America but can occur anywhere. The clue that it is likely a landspout is the overcast conditions which generally rules out a dust devil. The second clue is the temperature of only 10C. It would be very difficult to get a tornado in that type of airmass. You can probably get more information by doing a search of landspouts at google.com

Answer 3

Tornado

Answer 4

There are purely 2 probable solutions, because oxygen even diatomically is a reactive gas, for this reason until eventually replenished it finally ends up as oxides by the planetary floor. a million. extreme volcanic outgassing. this does no longer seem really probable, both, because such extremity of volcanism also places mammoth quantities of H- and S-compounds into the ambience. 2. existence. Specifally, fairly some cardio microbial and plant existence. On Mars, the data for #2 should not be difficult to discover in case you would deliver a dedicated geological (arelogical?) crew there to take distinctive floor and deep samples by the planet.

Answer 5

a tornado