Huge dust devil in Brandon, Man., due to warm, dry weather
Don't worry: Rain is on the way
Dry, sunny conditions are bringing out the dust devils in Manitoba.
A picture of what was described as a "massive" dust devil in Brandon was posted on Facebook Friday.
David Baggaley, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the tiny twisters happen all the time in the spring and summer.
"A very dry air mass, like we have today — Brandon is a fair bit sunnier than [Winnipeg], now — basically just the afternoon sunshine heats up the ground a lot, it warms up the air just above it ... the warm, rising air has a little bit of spin to it, and it just tightens up into a dust devil," he said.
"You're probably looking at a bigger one today," he said.
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Baggaley said there are probably thousands of the small ones a year, though they're usually not reported.
Manitoba's under a very dry air mass, Baggaley said, but Winnipeg is too cloudy for big devils to form.
Brandon is set to cloud over Sunday.
"Unfortunately, we're looking at a fairly rainy weekend, at least for tonight and most of Sunday, especially in the eastern part of Manitoba — so not a lot of happy campers out there," he quipped.