You can sometimes see them from miles away. Twisting, turning, racing accross open farm fields on a sunny northwest day. Many people call dust devils mini-tornadoes, and they sure look them, minus the cloud on top. Here's one from the Willamette Valley on Saturday.

I'm not sure who sent this in...other than they snapped the photo with their camera phone on I-5 where you exit for Corvallis. Then they sent it over the Verizon photo network, or whatever it is. You gotta love technology!

Anyway, today was a perfect day for a dust devil in parts of the valley that didn't see rain. The air on the ground was much warmer than the air above us - and when warm air rises it sometimes gets twisted and spinning and everything else.

Here's a cool site that explains it all and has some really great photos!

http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/earthsci/imagearchive/dust_devils.htm

Thanks for checking out the blog - and have a great weekend!

Bruce
bsussman@kgw.com

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