From: Steven Eiger (eiger@montana.edu)
Date: Fri May 31 2002 - 16:47:06 PDT
Message-Id: <l03102804b91dba8c36e4@[153.90.150.107]> Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 17:47:06 -0600 From: Steven Eiger <eiger@montana.edu> Subject: Re: pinhole Dust Devils
Raleigh, I think you have a very interesting question there. I think I can
rule out one possibility. When I was a kid I remember seeing a whole bunch
of water spouts, these little tornado-like things (10-30 feet high?) on the
water around me. The waves were very large but smooth and it was in open
ocean not near land, thus the only barrier that could have formed them were
the waves, they were in long lines, and I vaguely remember the air as being
very still. This may be another phenomenon? Also it was 35 years ago.
Eiger
>I think I understand why large storms organize
>themselves into spiral patterns, but I'm not sure
>about things like little dust devils. Are dust devils
>created by "eddies" of turbulent wind? If they are
>eddies, do they spin in random directions, as the air
>does when it is breaking away from the trunk of a car
>at speed? I was looking a these small (some had debris
>blowing around at about 4-6 feet) dust devils in the
>school yard and they all seemed to spin in the same
>direction. They appeared to come from wind being
>disturbed by one of our portables. Shouldn't they be
>spinning randomly?
>
>Would it be correct to say that the flow of heat
>creates the storms and wind, but the disturbance of
>wind creates the dust devils?
>
>With firm handshake,
>Raleigh
>
Steven Eiger, Ph.D.
Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience and the WWAMI Medical Education
Program
PO Box 173148
Montana State University - Bozeman
Bozeman, MT 59717-3148
Voice: (406) 994-5672
E-mail: eiger@montana.edu
FAX: (406) 994-7077
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