whirlwind
Sign in to savethumb|A whirlwind thumb|A dust devil at school ground thumb|Whirlwind, 61 km northeast of Broome, Western Australia
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
8 sectionsContents
- Types
- Formation
- Duration
- Associated weather
- Similar phenomena
- See also
- External links
- References
thumb|A whirlwind thumb|A dust devil at school ground thumb|Whirlwind, 61 km northeast of Broome, Western Australia
A whirlwind is a phenomenon in which a vortex of wind (a vertically oriented rotating column of air) forms due to instabilities and turbulence created by heating and flow (current) gradients. Whirlwinds can vary in size and last from a few minutes to a few hours.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “whirlwind” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.