Chasing Dust Devil "Tornadoes" In The Black Rock Desert - A Dust Devil Research Project Begins

Рет қаралды 17,619

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 63

@carsonscribner2934 Жыл бұрын

I was chasing dust devils about a week ago and they are so festinating. Seeing one is one thing, but being inside one is so much different. It's so weird ad cool to feel the hot air inside of them. As of typing this tomorrow's forecast looks like a great day for them as well where I live, I might go dust devil chasing.

@jupiterresident1537 4 ай бұрын

This video is so amazing. ❤ Finally I found someone who shares this fascination. I can't understand why I love dust devils so much, they are so beautiful, breathtaking. I remember when I first saw one, I was so excited and amazed that I couldn't sleep 😅 Love from Poland!

@stevenmellet5555 Жыл бұрын

This is amazing, Nick ! As a paraglider pilot I can relate to your research, we are obviously quite afraid of dusties, but where I fly they are a common occurrence in summer - I saw several from the air just two days ago. Our understanding of them is that they are formed after a thermal has departed the ground, and surrounding cooler air rushes in from all directions to replace the low pressure left behind, forming the spinning air, rising to follow the departed thermal. As a paraglider pilot, you don't want to encounter one on final approach to landing, or even higher up !

@civagiarn Ай бұрын

I saw a really cool dust devil in the road in front of our car on the street in Cyprus yesterday, it was so narrow, fast spinning and tall. They are very fascinating!

@xguitarist_ 6 ай бұрын

Going back to the bit about trying to disturb a heated area to create a dust devil on command, during Halloween time a popular thing to make is “low lying fog” which ideally carpets the floor with a layer of fog. I have done this and seen very small vortices form sometimes when someone disturbs it just right or sometimes they form completely on their own usually right next to a sewer (It provides a weak updraft somehow). I’d be willing to bet if you used a fog chiller on asphalt on a sunny day with barely any wind, you could disturb the air a little and see whirlwinds form since the heat from the sun will create a stronger updraft. Fog is also perfect for this since it’ll show any tiny whirlwind just like your demonstration did

@CiscoKid76 3 ай бұрын

Bro, go to Pheonix, AZ. I take loop 202 when going to L.A. from TX and I always see at least 3 to 5 dust devils just taking that loop when the day is real hot and sunny. You can see them more on the southern side of Pheonix. I always wonder why anybody is documenting them. Great video by the way.

@sol889 3 ай бұрын

Willy willy down here in Oz. Top stuff champ. 👍

@ORBsKELETON 8 күн бұрын

Really cool video dude, I love dust devils, chasing them around and being bewildered at their beauty. You tell a great story. 🌪🌎✨️🌏❤️🌍🌪

@IberisDivulga 6 ай бұрын

Nice to see you again after more tan ten years, Nick. I remember a video from you chasing dust devils on a place full of machines working surrounded by trees... I also remember you used to upload videos of whips... Greetings from Spain

@JadedHunter 5 ай бұрын

They are an electrical phenomenon. That's why they can be anywhere. You are seeing the charge travel across the surface of the earth in Birdland currents. The scaled up version is a tornado, cyclone etc. just add more charge.

@CarbonRobloxide 2 ай бұрын

No??? Its from swirling hot air.

@BasilLikesScripting Ай бұрын

where on earth did you get that theory from?

@CarbonRobloxide Ай бұрын

@ exactly 😡

@alexlubbers1589 Жыл бұрын

I was literally chasing dust devils as this video uploaded! What a coincidence! I too have been fascinated by dust devils ever since I was a kid and love going after them. Theres a spot near my favorite hiking area I call "whirlwind valley" and they occur all the time. The hotspot is a flood retention basin thats full of very fine powdery dust and surrounded by sloping concrete that helps focus the sun's heat.

@NickSchrader Жыл бұрын

That's very interesting, Alex! Thank you for watching!

@NickSchrader Жыл бұрын

I just realized that you are the original creator of the model tornado with the fog under the red sheet. That was an excellent idea! Did you channel the fog through pvc pipe underneath the sheet?

@alexlubbers1589 Жыл бұрын

@@NickSchrader Sure did! I used a PVC pipe to direct the fog, and the sheet allows the fog to slow down and seep thru rather than blasting out and disrupting the vortex. I hope to make a video of how I made it, with my newer version.

@Max-jp5dm Жыл бұрын

Great video man! The editing, quality, and description you give about dust devils are 10 10

@LDQBBQ Жыл бұрын

Beautifully done. I've long had a fascination with all types of whirls. They're gorgeous and absolutely fascinating. I also admire the passion you have for this endeavor as it is extremely reminiscent of how I go about my week long fishing trips. I grind all day hoping for a few moments of glory. I feel like this is the same thing. I look forward to more of your content.

@HoIyAngel 8 ай бұрын

Nice video. Thank you for sharing your adventure 😊

@NickSchrader 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for watching! I have an update video coming soon.

@TanzeelRohaanAnime 2 ай бұрын

I once made a dust devil at school

@imbetterthanyou3711 7 ай бұрын

bro is the pecos hank of dust devils

@user-wy4mp9ts3u 3 ай бұрын

He is awesome,love meet him both actually,Hank to

@LaramidiaWX 7 ай бұрын

Entertaining and informative video of your cool adventure! My son and I went dust devil chasing with a friend today on a small dry lake here in Alberta and despite cumulus cloud shadows and moderate wind we still managed to see one. Will definitely try again using your tips.

@user-wy4mp9ts3u 11 ай бұрын

There is so much we don't know about them,that intrigues me

@MsLisa551 11 ай бұрын

Love this video!!

@creeperjackcraft 5 ай бұрын

Thanks, now we have better warnings for grasshoppers.

@DelSipes Жыл бұрын

Years ago while on a drive in central Indiana, I noticed a strange white column in the sky. It was very uniform and appeared to be absolutely vertical. It seemed to go thousands of feet into the air. I tried to point it out to my wife and she could not see it. I made a couple turns and tried to get closer to it. When it suddenly disappeared and then reappeared for no apparent reason and when my wife still could not see it, I finally realized that my polarized sunglasses were allowing me to see it. She put her sunglasses on and we watched, together, as the the largest dust devil that I have ever seen passed only a few feet in front of our car. When it became difficult to see it again, I tilted my head from side to side, changing the angle of the polarization. At just the right angle it was possible to see individual small objects swirling in the updraft, while an angular shift of only 15 or 20 degrees turned it to a vague, indistinct column and another 20 degree tilt made it invisible. It was all over in a matter of minutes, but left me wondering about the science of it all. Obviously we had first noticed it and had driven toward it while maintaining almost the same angle relative to the sun. If it had been backlit by the sunlight or straight away from the sunlight, we may have never seen it. My questions for you: Have you toyed with polarization, at all, while observing dust devils? Could you fit your camera with a polarized filter that could be rotated to the optimum angle? Would it be possible, using the drone, to manipulate your vantage point relative to the angle of the sunlight? Inquiring minds want to know! Thanks for the awesome videos. Happy hunting!

@jamessmith4172 7 ай бұрын

That’s a very interesting story, would love to hear more about polarisation and dust devils!

@ryderdobie 3 ай бұрын

you sure it wasnt a landspout?

@jordanarmstrong1353 Жыл бұрын

Very lit

@user-wy4mp9ts3u 11 ай бұрын

That is amazing

@Mr194911 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing reminded me of my childhood memories trying to get into a dirt devil

@brennuvargr4638 Жыл бұрын

Absolutely fantastic content. Thank you so much for going out and chasing them; this is the sort of video I love to see. I've never seen dust devils myself, but hope to one day (even though they're not all that common here in the UK). :)

@Tempest16500 Жыл бұрын

Fantastic video! I'm fascinated by dust devils (and their larger cousins) as well. Its great to see others appreciating how amazing they are. They're just as fascinating as tornadoes but without the danger, destruction and rarity. Hoping to chase & study them more when summer comes around again here in Australia. There is so much more to learn about them, I've been collecting hundreds of dust devil videos across KZbin and putting them into a playlist for future research. Also love your little dust devil model. If you don't mind me asking, is it the buoyancy of the smoke creating the updraft or have you got some kind of heated surface beneath? Thanks and hope you get some incredible dust devils this summer!

@NickSchrader Жыл бұрын

Thank you very much for watching! I will be sure to check out your playlist you've created. Also, thank you for the kind words on my dust devil model. I plan to make a detailed, separate video all about it in the near future. First, I take a heat light (replicating the sun) pointing straight down on a flat, dark surface (replicating the ground). My idea is to replicate the thermodynamics as closely as possible to the real thing. Since the tiny dust devils that form naturally from the heat provided by the light don't have nearly enough energy to move even the lightest dust, I decided to use ice-cooled fog as an indicator. It is a very tricky balance because the ice cooled fog sometimes cools the surface very quickly if I used too much, causing a temperature inversion at the surface which keeps them from forming. I find that the best method is the spread the ice cooled fog on the surface as thinly as possible, so that it is just warm enough to start rising. There are still many variations that I can't wait to try, such as the distance of the light overhead, multiple areas of fog spread across the surface at once to simulate wind gusts colliding at different angles, as well as finding the temperature difference between the air and surface to see if it matches up in the real world. It's still a pretty bare-bones model, but I can't wait to wok with it more! Thanks again for watching!

@Tempest16500 Жыл бұрын

@@NickSchrader Thanks for the detailed reply! That's a great setup you have there, very simple yet realistic and looks like it covers a fairly wide area too, would be interesting to see if you can get several vortexes at once. Can't wait to see more!

@neilhawkes880 Жыл бұрын

I did my PhD research on buoyancy vortices - dust devils, waterspouts, fire whirls, and so on. Happy to discuss the theory of how they work and behave……

@NickSchrader Жыл бұрын

Hi Neil, thanks so much for reaching out! I would very much like to discuss these theories with you. I will keep you updated, thanks again!

@neilhawkes880 Жыл бұрын

@@NickSchraderThat would be cool. I analyzed some data on dust devils in the Mojave that NASA collected prior to the Mars landings - a long while ago now! I found that the rotational kinetic energy is proportional to the CAPE available within the superadiabatic layer in the atmosphere. This explains why such devils are rare outside of dry deserts. Superadiabatic layers are inherently unstable in all senses of the word. That’s why they don’t generally get started u til lunchtime. The superadiabatic layers don’t build up before then. It turns out that these vortices need circulation around a vertical axis and buoyant air - that’s obvious - but less obviously, they also need axial strain, to balance radial diffusion. That requires lapse-rate divergence - where the core cools more slowly than the surrounding atmosphere. Then specific buoyancy increases with height and that provides the vertical stretching. You don’t get superadiabatic layers in temperate atmospheres much - but you do in deserts. Generally only 4-500m deep, so the devils aren’t that strong, but you can get deeper layers if cooler air is blown over the desert. This happens in some coastal places in Australia and China. When it does, the devils can exceed terminal velocity and people have been hurled around and killed! But rare is rare…

@namenlosdeinemama1779 6 ай бұрын

🎉🎉🎉

@apriltassin9934 9 ай бұрын

I've actually been chasing dust devils lately and I made a probe a weight in a gopro

@user-wy4mp9ts3u 3 ай бұрын

Good music

@flytelaw1 Жыл бұрын

Very nicely done, Nick! The cinematic quality is top notch while the story telling side juxtaposed with the scientific side, offer an emotive experience for the viewer. Keep up the good work. By the way, I would like to collaborate on this project as I have the privilege of seeing some other dust devil heavens, like Kilimanjaro where I have seen about 20 of them complete with branches on the approach into the airport. Cheers, Chris

@williadYT Жыл бұрын

The huge farming area east of Chelan, WA is all dirt so soft and powdery that you sink into it when walking. This makes excellent dust devils and they are abundent there.

@amalkumardas7397 3 ай бұрын

I see a dust devil in my school today

@wren5291 Жыл бұрын

I feel a lot of people really underestimate the importance of wind and how vital it is to so many processes, and yet if weren't for Earth/matter we wouldn't be able to see it! Makes me want to go and find our mini UK equivalents called Eddies🤗. Perhaps next time but without risking damaging it of course, you could try flying your drone a little bit closer?😁. This is an awesome film with some rather majestic shots🌪. Congrats. When's the next one lol?👏🏽🥳.

@magewings7697 Ай бұрын

I've seen small dust devils in my backyard. It makes no sense.

@Im_gone_if_this_cloud_appears 7 ай бұрын

You should thy to create dust devils in nature by using many fans in a circular shape or doing the methods in the video, there is also a lot of large dust devils in the sonoran desert in Arizona

@rafaelmacias9979 7 ай бұрын

I once saw a dust devil going across the street which it was more just swirling air from a dust devil that was picking up leaves but then it went into someone’s yard and it looked like a Full on tornado! But like a mini one and I’m surprised it didn’t leave a mark on the ground because that thing had a Strong and I mean STRONG updraft lifting up rocks! Until it hit a metal fence and died out :edit: it wasn’t a tall dust devil being no taller than a regular 1 story house

@timweather3847 Жыл бұрын

Interesting, but rather disappointing dust devils. I had a bit of a problem with that bit about ‘hot air trapped under the colder air’. OK, the cold air is more dense, but that is precisely why the hot air starts to rise through it. The most devils I have seen were in Qatar, which I attributed to the meeting of sea breezes from the east and west coasts of the peninsula providing the vorticity to get them going.

@Kalymnyia 3 ай бұрын

Put a 👍if you think he is nice.

@ohhimark5723 Жыл бұрын

Go to oregon you will see a lot 👍

@-108- Жыл бұрын

Why didn't you just stay in Gerlach? No vacancy? You've gotta watch out for he BALLS High Power Rocket Launch & Burning Man at that time of year.

@thedarkestlotus Жыл бұрын

Your content differ from the others because you link photography and filming with actual interesting subjects. However, I feel like your videos lack color and contrast; it looks very dull in comparison to other youtubers out there. It made me realize that maybe it's the direction you chose to go. If it's the case I respect that, if not I think you should consider doing some tests for future videos. Keep up.