The dust devil phenomenon is rarely seen in the UK, with a Met Office explaining the unique conditions that led rise to it in Manchester City Centre in front of shocked residents
Residents were left gobsmacked as what appeared to be a tornado tore through Manchester city centre, but it turned out to be a rare ‘dust devil’. The 30-metre-high column of dust brought traffic to a halt on Great Ancoats Street and seemed to swallow a tree whole.
Adam Riding, a 30 year old violinist, was heading to the gym when he witnessed the spectacle. “I just saw this dust blowing upwards. It was this dark cloud and at first I thought it was an explosion but I didn’t really hear any noise. I froze. I didn’t know what to do and as it got higher and higher I got my phone out and started videoing it. It was probably over within a minute. It all happened really quickly.”
He added, “It was the most amazing thing. I’ve never seen anything like that. And to witness it in the city on really not a very windy day. It was like this wind tunnel between buildings had created this mini-vortex. It was bizarre.”
Meanwhile, website developer Peter David McHugh noticed the strange phenomenon from his fifth-floor apartment at Royal Mills, remarking on how suddenly darkness enveloped his flat.
A local resident was left stunned when his sunny day turned into a scene from a disaster movie, as he witnessed a towering cloud of dust outside his window. He recounted the experience: “I was inside and it was quite a sunny day and suddenly I was cast in darkness. I looked out and there’s this towering cloud of dust. I jumped up and thought ‘it’s a tornado or something’. I got my phone and managed to catch the end of it. Then it just sort of dissipated,” reports the Manchester Evening News.
“It was really interesting. I’ve lived here eight years and I’ve never seen that. It was pretty wild.”
The Manchester Evening News took the footage to the Met Office for analysis, where a meteorologist clarified that the phenomenon was not a tornado but a dust devil.
The expert explained: “It’s a sunny day and very little in the way of cloud. For a tornado you need a thunder storm and almost certainly heavy rain as well. A tornado is effectively a rotating column of air due to a severe thunderstorm.
“A dust devil forms due to irregularities caused by temperature contrasts on different surfaces around which then causes rotation of the air and, when there’s dust and debris, you can get these columns of air.”
He also noted that dust devils are significantly smaller than tornadoes, which can span half-a-mile in width.
On its website, the Met Office describes a dust devil, sometimes called a willy willy, saying: “This phenomenon, most commonly known today as dust devils, is an upward spiralling, dust filled vortex of air that may vary in height from a few feet to over 1,000.
“They are usually several metres in diameter at the base, then narrowing for a short distance before expanding again. They mainly occur in desert and semi-arid areas, where the ground is dry and high surface temperatures produce strong updrafts.
“The initial rotation may be caused by irregularities in the surface. Unlike tornadoes, dust devils grow upwards from the ground, rather than down from clouds. In the stronger dust devils, a cumulous cloud can be seen at the top of the rising column of warm air. They only last a few minutes because cool air is sucked into the base of the rising vortex, cooling the ground and cutting off its heat supply.”