An Arizona meteorologist filmed the “intense” moment that a dust devil suddenly formed nearby and made a beeline towards him.
Weatherman Tyler Maio was out near Silverbell Lake in Tucson, fishing and enjoying the beautiful sunny weather when the twister appeared.
Video he shared with Fox Weather shows a wide cyclone of dirt and dust rapidly begin to swirl before taking off right at Maio as he filmed. People nearby can be seen trying to get out of the way.
“Oh my God!” he yells as the dust devil envelopes him within seconds, video shows.
He was covered head to toe in dust and had to wash out his eyes with a bottle of water, he told the outlet.
He said his fishing rod stayed put but the cyclone tossed his chair about 20 feet.
“It was just wild,” Maio told Fox Weather. “As a meteorologist myself, I’ve experienced thunderstorms, rain. I have never experienced something like that. That was very intense and pretty crazy.”
According to the National Weather Service, dust devils are typically small vortices of dust and debris that are much smaller in size and intensity than their destructive cousins, tornadoes.
Sunny, hot days with light winds are the prime conditions for dust devils to form, according to Fox Weather senior meteorologist Scott Sistek.
The ground becomes extremely hot causing vast differences in temperature within just a few hundred feet, he said.
The heated air will then shoot upward, with surface winds, typically low speed, providing fuel for the vortex.
Dust devils usually only last for a few minutes and rarely cause any significant damage, Sistek said.
Last month, a youth baseball player found himself in the middle of a dust devil that formed over home plate while he was up a bat. A quick acting teenage umpire, quickly pulled the 7-year-old boy out of the cyclone, video showed.
Although there is no way to predict when a dust devil may form, Mao recommended anyone who finds themselves in one to get low to the ground and cover their face, he told Fox Weather.
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