FREDERICK — If you were in Downtown Frederick on Wednesday, May 24th, you may have caught a glimpse of an unusual sight. A decently sized dust devil was spinning around during the afternoon and left many quickly reaching for their phones to record it.
Josh VerStandig saw the whirling winds and caught this quick video before posting it to his Twitter page.
The dust devil spun around in what looked to be a grassy lot downtown before it dissipated shortly after. You could see how the dust devil picked up dust from the lot and lifted it high up into the air as it twirled around for a few yards.
These types of events are not uncommon as they are due to a pocket of warm air rising. This is the same event that occurs during the fall and leaves begin to circle around and lift up but during the summer the lift is much stronger thanks to the sun angle creating much higher amounts of heating.
What separates dust devils from tornadoes, is that tornadoes have an associated parent thunderstorm that cause the lift and spin from above the ground. Dust devils originate from the ground as the rising air begins to lift and follows the Ekman spiral principle as it begins to encounter directional shear.
