A Dust-whirl or (?) Tornado

Abstract

IN NATURE (vol. xl. p. 174) you kindly allowed me to describe a. dust-whirl seen to originate on a heated dust-covered highway. The phenomenon has just been repeated under much similar circumstances, only in this instance the column of dust after oscillating to and fro on the highway for about half a minute, moved rapidly away in a curvilinear path in a northerly direction, the lower end of the whirl catching up loose material in its track where it touched the ground, which it did at intervals of from ten to fifteen yards, carrying the strawy litter from a strawberry bed upwards of 50 yards in the air. It appeared to dissipate into the upper air when crossing a meadow some 300 yards from its place of origin. The characteristic “swish” of the rushing air was very marked, and the four motions common to all tornadoes (see Lieut. Finley's “Character of Six Hundred Tornadoes”), viz. whirling from right to left, progressive motion to the north, a curvilinear track, and the dipping up and down, were all distinctly traced. The question therefore, naturally arises—Can these dust-whirls be tornadoes in miniature?