dust devil

DUST DEV-ul

A small, vigorous whirlwind made visible by the debris it lifts, spinning across open ground on hot days. Not a tornado — a dust devil is born from surface heating, not storm dynamics. It has no parent cloud. It is its own weather.
Etymology
American English. The "devil" is the whirl — small, hot, capricious, arriving without warning.
 weather desert/arid
*

Surprise Me With a Word