Image: Wikimedia Commons

dust devil

Meteorological phenomenon

EntityweatherQ490600

Also known as dancing devil · willy-willy · whirly-whirly · dirt devil

Instance of: weather
Subclass of: vortex

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

A dust devil is a strong, well-formed, and relatively short-lived whirlwind. Its size ranges from small to large—0.5 m (18 in) and a few yards or metres tall to more than 10 m (30 ft) wide and more than 1 km tall. The primary vertical motion is upward. Dust devils are usually harmless, but can on rare occasions grow strong enough to endanger both people and property.

Overview

All data

17 statements · 29% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Different from: tornado
snowspout
Said to be the same as: Willy-willy

On other databases

11 identifiers linking dust devil across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

29%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 28, 2026. AIDb refreshes this page daily.

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AIDb. (2026). dust devil (Q490600). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/dust-devil-Q490600