A Vorticity Source for Large-Scale Dust Devils and Other Comments on Naturally Occurring Columnar Vortices

Abstract

Several miscellaneous topics are presented, all connected with the dynamics of concentrated atmospheric vortices. The main topic is concerned with a vorticity source for dust devils in which we show that one possible source is the turning of the horizontal vorticity in the atmospheric boundary layer into the vertical direction. Comments on the existence of “vortex-jump” phenomena in atmospheric vortices and the cause of tornado skipping complete the discussion.