What kind of weather do dust devils form in?
A bright, sunny day in which there are just light winds, and not a lot of what meteorologists call “mixing”. The air near the ground must be allowed to develop a very thin hot layer. This layer then breaks, heat surges upward, and the light winds start it spinning. • Sometimes I see little whirls of snow spin “dance” across our hill in the winter … These are just eddies, and may take on the characteristics of a true vortex for a few seconds. But without warm rising air, they can’t last. Those that last a few seconds are controlled by the curve of the land. • I have heard about outbreaks. What is an outbreak? If there are six or more tornadoes from a single weather system, it is generally termed an outbreak. Sometimes the National Weather Service doesn’t term it an outbreak unless there are 10 tornadoes. If there are only 3, and each one is a killer, the word outbreak will probably be used. The word “outbreak” is a very loose, poorly defined term. Sometimes all 6 (or 10) tornadoes can
