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Dust devil near home plate takes softball team by surprise in Alabama, video shows

An Alabama softball coach said she was shocked when a Tasmanian devil-like dust cloud took form near home plate as she and her team practiced Tuesday afternoon.

Kayla Brinson, who coaches at Pleasant Grove High School near Birmingham, took out her phone to record as a swirling dust devil kicked up dirt and other debris high into the air, according to video posted online.

The mini-cyclone twisted in the wind for several seconds before dissolving seconds later.

“Never a dull moment at the field,” Brinson wrote on Twitter.

So what exactly is a dust devil, and how do they form?

The small-scale weather phenomena typically form whenhot air at the surface begins to rise rapidly with much cooler air above it and higher up into the atmosphere,” according to Ben Beddoes, meteorologist at WHSV in Virginia.

“The hot air then stretches and causes a spinning motion much like a tornado,” Beddoes wrote, adding that dust devils are short-lived because “cold air eventually gets pulled in and dissipates” it.

The twisters are usually visible when they form over barren, or desert-like terrain, he said.

Dust devil vs. tornado

While dust devils are considered cyclones like tornadoes, the two systems form slightly differently. Also, one tends to be larger and more destructive than the other.

A 2014 report from Climate Central described dust devils as the result of a “mini-weather pattern” that creates a “rotating column of warm, rising air” forming from the ground up. Dust devils need the perfect conditions to form: hot, dry and calm weather with clear skies.

In contrast, tornadoes typically touch down from the atmosphere and are the result of supercell thunderstorms with “strong vertical wind shear causing a horizontally rotating cylinder of air,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Tornadic wind speeds can reach up to 300 mph, causing significant damage to homes, businesses and other property. In contrast, violent dust devils only cause minor damage, measuring at EF0 or 65-85 mph on the Enhanced Fujita scale, per the American Meteorological Society.

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