Saw this dust devil right outside Tonopah. Whew!

BLOWING SOMETHING UP

It was just a little skittering wind, coming from the north, sliding down the flank of a ridge of desert peaks which were bigger than hills, but not erect enough to dignify the term, mountains.

The wind touched the edge of a long dry lake bed, and picked up a few grains of sand. It roamed east a bit and then west, gaining more sand and strength from its lazy brother winds who only hovered negligently and were easily absorbed. A belligerent cross wind further down the lake bed tried to flatten it, but the little wind spun around and caught it up in the vortex.

Then, spinning constantly and running south, it pulled a steady trickle of sand and weaker winds into its maw – the growing wind kept it’s mouth in the sand and reached it’s twirling arms to the heavens, it’s voice rising to a roar.



“Good God, would you look at that?” Ed poked his snoring wife Maddy awake. “I’m pulling over!” he shouted and slammed on the brakes on the thirty-six foot RV they lived in. They slid to a stop on the gravel shoulder of the two lane highway they were traveling.

“Jeeze Ed, what is it? You near scared me to death!”

“See for yourself!” Ed told her, pointing out the windshield. “That’s the biggest damn dust-devil I’ve ever seen – must be five miles high!”

And they both stared open-mouthed as the little wind, now grown so huge, danced across the road fifty-yards in front of them and plowed happily into the vast remaining miles of the dry lake bed.