PHOENIX — It’s dust devil season in Arizona! You might be noticing more dust devils spinning up lately because May and June tend to be the months with the most dust devils sightings in Arizona.
Although, dust devils can spin up any time of year.
To create a dust devil, you need intense sunshine to strike the ground and different colored surfaces, such as asphalt and dirt, because they heat up differently.
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The ground gets hotter faster than the air above it. Hotter air is less dense and will want to rise. The upward rush of air may start to rotate and as it gets stretched upward, its spin speeds up.
The twirling air picks up dust and debris as it moves across the landscape.
Even though they're not tornadoes, dust devils can still be destructive.
Dust devil flareups tend to happen most between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. because that's when the sunshine is strongest. Warm weather and lighter winds also help promote a dust-devil-making environment.
You may think dust devils are only in the desert but they've also been known to develop in the forests of the Mogollon Rim.
Dust devil diameters range from 10 to 300 feet wide with an average height of 500 to 1000 feet. Winds inside whip up to around 45 mph but can spike at speeds greater than 60 mph in larger dust devils.
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