Local colour

[indri]

Last night, walking home, we walked through half-a-dozen dust devils. These are swirls of leaves and dust, perhaps a few metres high, whipped around by the wind. They're a sort of loose and saggy micro version of a tornado. I've seen them before, of course, but never before in the centre of town. The rest of tthe time, the wind was gusty but mostly going in a straight line, a genuine dust storm.

Comments

[rahirah]

When I was a kid, we used to chase dust devils in the vacant lot where the freeway was supposed to go in someday. I'm not sure if we expected to be swept up like Dorothy, or if we were trying to kill them...

[indri]

Did anything ever happen once you caught one?

[rahirah]

We got a lot of dust up out noses. If it was a small one, we could disrupt it by dancing around in it. If it was larger, it'd usually just blow right by us.

[binsoup.livejournal.com]

I miss those. I grew up in a town at the foot of a mountain, and we usually have dust devils 'round the time before typhoon season starts.

I can't remember the last time I saw dust devils here. The climactic and environmental changes we've had in the last three decades have screwed up them devils.

[indri]

I never saw a dust devil until I came to Australia.

The climactic and environmental changes we've had in the last three decades have screwed up them devils

See, I don't even know what causes them. I may have to look it up.