Oswestry boss captures 'dust devil' on his phone
There was not a cloud in the sky or a breeze in the air yet a 'mini tornado' suddenly appeared at the headquarters of a heavy plant rental company near Oswestry.
Stuart Jones, managing director at Ridgway Rentals in St Martins, was walking across the site when dust rose several feet into the air in front of him.
Reaching for his mobile phone he was able to film the phenomena, which happened on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr Jones has since discovered that what he saw was a "dust devil" - more common in desert or arid landscapes.
"At first I though it was a mini-tornado by there was absolutely no wind in the yard at all," he said.
"We have had similar things that might rise up from the ground a few feet then disappear almost immediately but nothing as spectacular as this before."
“You can really hear it blowing, and it’s certainly something quite amazing to see.”
Dust devils form when hot air near the surface of the earth rises quickly through a small pocket of cooler, low-pressure air above it. If conditions are just right, the air may begin to rotate. As the air rapidly rises, the column of hot air is stretched vertically.
They are known as devils because in many countries around the world they were thought to be bad spirits.
Aborigines would warn their children that if they misbehave, a spirit will emerge from the dust devil, while the Navajo of North America say a good spirit will spin clockwise and a bad spirit anti-clockwise.
Across the middle east they are known as djin, genies or devils.
In Texas in 2010, three children in an inflatable bouncy castle were picked up by a dust devil and lifted over 10 feet travelling over a fence and landing in a backyard three houses away.
Dust devils are also known to rise up on the surface of the plant Mars.
