A dust devil was spotted in the burned area of Serra de Montesinho, in Bragança. Images shared on Wednesday by the Meteo Trás os Montes – Portugal page show the phenomenon, also known as a ‘dust devil’ in English.
According to the Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), a dust devil is “a whirlwind, with a height between a few meters and several hundred meters.”
“The column of air with ascending, converging, and rotating vertical movements shows some similarities to that of a tornado,” but differs from that phenomenon “because it is due to large temperature differences between the layer of air near the ground and the air above.”
Thus, it occurs “frequently in clear sky conditions, without an associated parent cloud, always organizing from bottom to top.”
It’s worth recalling that a fire burned for several days in that area in August.
