dust devil

These winds stir up dust into swirling columns called dust devils—rotating plumes of air and fine particles that sweep across the Martian surface.

Magistrate Robert Webster agreed with the defence and found that the incident happened due to a dust devil - an upward spiralling vortex of air and debris - that was "unforeseen and unforeseeable".

Unlike tornadoes, dust devils grow upwards from the ground rather than down from clouds, and they last for only a few minutes.

There was an extreme heat advisory in effect for parts of Riverside County on the day of the accident, but dust devils can form in all types of conditions, Munyan said.

The winter before last, my wife and I were driving back to L.A. from Mammoth when our car began veering across the lane markers as dust devils rose from the desert floor.