Huge Dust Devil Near Fort Worth Mistaken for Tornado
I’m going to assume the person filming this video is not from this part of the country.
I say that because most of the folks from around here are quite familiar with dust devils. Now, I grew up in the sticks, about a quarter mile south of Vernon, Texas.
Dust devils are a regular occurrence out there. It’s rare that a summer day goes by that you don’t see a dust devil making it’s way across the landscape.
And my experience is that most dust devils are pretty small, meaning the vast majority of people would never mistake one for a tornado. But every now and then, you’ll see one that could easily be mistaken for a twister if the skies were dark with menacing storm clouds.
However, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a dust devil on a day that wasn’t mostly sunny. So, there’s that.
But I can see how a dust devil would freak someone out if they didn’t know any better. That’s clearly the case with the below video that was shared on TikTok.
The clip starts with the person crossing an overpass near I-35W. Upon first glance, I actually thought it was a rainbow in the distance.
But it soon became obvious that it was actually a dust devil they were witnessing (and a pretty large one at that). I initially assumed they were filming the dust devil because it was so big. And then you hear a woman say, “I’ve never seen a tornado before.”
Thankfully, she still hasn’t.
@dallas_texastv Well that’s wild to see #fyp #foryou #texas ♬ original sound - Dallas Texas TV