Did I see a land spout or extremely large dust devil?

[Raymond Mason]

Hello guys! Just today I saw one of the most crazy bizarre weather events I have ever experienced around here. What I experienced was 894 feet away from me. I was on the other side of the highway by my house in the truck with my father. There was a medium sized cloud releasing some rain. It was almost dusk when it happened.

Me and my father saw this HUGE rush of dust flowing from the ground up. I mean it happened in 3 seconds or less while routing. Now I have seen a lot of dust devils in my life around here and trust me this looked and felt different. It was so tall I couldn't see the top of it from where I was sitting in the truck facing it. I just looked at it in shock and awe. I thought it was a tornado for real. My father couldn't believe what he was seeing either. I have never seen anything like that in all of my life.

Shortly after it formed a huge dust stormed appeared that surrounded our vehicle and we had to close the windows to prevent the dust from flooding in. After thinking some, I thought I witnessed a dry micro burst. We live in the desert, there was rain coming out of the cloud above where the land spout/dust devil appeared.

After talking to my family members, it turns out it actually hit the house. They saw the same thing me and my father did expect it came straight for the house. They explained it as a tornado that appeared suddenly. Our house was on the other side of the hallway where it formed.

It did some damage to the roof and scared everyone that saw it. 9+ people where at the house and witnessed it as well. It disappeared shortly after it passed over the house.

My instincts tell me it was a short lived land spout with EF0 winds. What do you guys think? Maybe my view is biased. I would of recorded it if it wasn't so sudden.

Edit: The base of this thing was about as wide as a medium sized house.

 

[Wes Carter]

A few questions:
Where was this?
What time/date?
How did you get such a precise distance of 894 feet? (Just curious)

If it did damage and occurred underneath a rain producing cloud I would guess it could have been a landspout, but looking at the conditions where you were when this occurred will help tremendously.

 

[Raymond Mason]

A few questions:
Where was this?
What time/date?
How did you get such a precise distance of 894 feet? (Just curious)

If it did damage and occurred underneath a rain producing cloud I would guess it could have been a landspout, but looking at the conditions where you were when this occurred will help tremendously.

First Answer: Henderson by Las Vegas Nevada.

Second Answer: April 5th Saturday it was around 4:00 to 5:00 a clock pm standard Pacific time. I believe 11:00 PM GMT.

Third Answer: Just Google map distance calculator. It gives you a Google map with some pins to use for distance. I just put where I was on the map when it happen and where I saw it.

The weather didn't forecast any rain but there was some weak scattered rain storms around the valley. Hopefully this helps.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Me and my father saw this HUGE rush of dust flowing from the ground up.

Rotation? Just based on that description, it sounds like an updraft pulling dust off the ground. I have seen huge plumes of dust sucked up off of freshly plowed and bone dry fields that form huge columns of dust. This wouldn't be a tornado or gustnado, but inflow winds into the updraft. Nearby outflow winds could also be at work, pushing the dust containing inflow up and over the outflow. We got a shot of something similar from the air back in 2012. There's a big plume of dirt here being kicked up by a rear flanking downdraft, but the top of it was being sucked back into the base of the storm's updraft:

If there was strong rotation, and usually this would be more obvious and the most memorable feature rather than the upward motion, than it could have been a gustnado or landspout. If you some low level, strong rotation in the base or a condensation funnel, that would have distinguished it as a landspout.

 

[Raymond Mason]

Rotation? Just based on that description, it sounds like an updraft pulling dust off the ground. I have seen huge plumes of dust sucked up off of freshly plowed and bone dry fields that form huge columns of dust. This wouldn't be a tornado or gustnado, but inflow winds into the updraft. Nearby outflow winds could also be at work, pushing the dust containing inflow up and over the outflow. We got a shot of something similar from the air back in 2012. There's a big plume of dirt here being kicked up by a rear flanking downdraft, but the top of it was being sucked back into the base of the storm's updraft:

If there was strong rotation, and usually this would be more obvious and the most memorable feature rather than the upward motion, than it could have been a gustnado or landspout. If you some low level, strong rotation in the base or a condensation funnel, that would have distinguished it as a landspout.

I will be honest I never saw the rotation. My family saw the rotation apparently. I am starting to suspect they saw something else from what I saw. Maybe while we where watching this inflow of dust happening, maybe the gusts of wind that formed that could of formed a dust devil. I think that is what might of happened. I think it was odd because the dust was close together.

This is more like what I have seen. This is a mars dust devil but this is pretty close to what I saw in size and shape. It was really thick with dust obviously.

 

[Paul Knightley]

How close by was the rain? It could well have been a microburst - fluids rarely flow in straight lines, and so rotation, to some degree, will almost always be seen within dust clouds along outflow.

 

[Stan Rose]

Sounds like a classic big dust devil to me. Thanks to the drought we had a zillion of them last year, some were probably 50-60 mph. If they get pulled into a cloud base, they can turn into landspouts.

 

[Raymond Mason]

How close by was the rain? It could well have been a microburst - fluids rarely flow in straight lines, and so rotation, to some degree, will almost always be seen within dust clouds along outflow.

It was below the cloud; but below the dry part near the edge. That was my original thought; that it was a dry micro burst. The rain could of mixed with the dry air causing cool air to collect and come down in a rapid fashion.

Stand Rose: I might not know a whole lot about tornado formation but I don't think it is possible for a dust devil to turn into a land spout; even under a storm. I think it was just a large dust devil maybe caused by the micro burst.