Weird Tornado Like Winds in the Southern California Desert

[MonsoonDude]

I was driving down the highway in the middle of the desert, and I noticed a HUGE dust devil ripping desert weeds and everything out...I chased it and noticed something interesting...I looked up and noticed a pretty big Cumulus Cloud, and the bottom showed signs of rotation..so was this actually a small tornado..the cloud was probably only about 8,000feet tall..nothing came out of it but this Dust Storm...It was really neat...I saw it off the side of the highway, so i punched into the desert to get it..As i left the highway it wasnt windy, when i got closer, it was windy..I dropped a paper bag on the ground and i noticed it swept right away into the area the dust storm was and up into the sky..the size of the dust Storm I would think was about 300feet wide..It was a great size to view! So what was this that I saw? a regular dust devil or something else??

Kev

[Arizwx]

"Landspout"...I saw one as well on Thurs afternoon as the Outflow Boundry of earlier SEV Trstrms some 60nm away interacted with a new energy source the W Face of the Catalina Mtns at 9+K ft...
DJ

[weatherlover427]

Do these cause any real damage?

[Aslkahuna]

can do up to F1 damage-in fact someone was killed by one in Maine recently, and landspouts can get up to F2 at least-yes they can do damage. The F4's and F5's are usually mesocyclone tornadoes, but the other varieties of tornadoes-Landspouts, tornadic gustnadoes, cold air funnels and the odd one that just occurs along with the ones that result from terrain interactions, can theoretically reach as high as F3 while Dust Devils seem to peak at high F1 low F2.

Steve