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Towering Dust Devil Swirls in Reno

A towering dust devil formed in southern Reno, Nevada, on March 22, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

“Very large dust devil, a cousin of the tornado, but not a tornado … mainly because it wasn’t attached to a thunderstorm,” said the NWS Reno in a comment to another Twitter user. “We saw it from the office this afternoon and we would have been able to see a funnel cloud descending from the cloud if it were ‘tornadic’.”

The NWS Reno tweeted a graphic to show how dust devils form, explaining that as the sun warms the ground, air begins to rise and create an area of low pressure. When air flows in to fill the void, it begins to circulate and form a funnel from the ground upwards. Credit: Edan L. W. via Storyful