As I started walking up the stairs I checked the hi's and lo temps and noticed it was 84.0F. The hi read 85.0F. I then proceeded up the stairs. As I walked past the open window it was calm outside. About 3 seconds later a severely strong gust blasted in the window from the south. I immediately ran to close it because I thought the plants on the ledge might blow off. I knew something was happening, so I ran to the NW facing window and saw a large wind blowing from the south and or east. This window was open so I could hear it howling. It was probably in excess of 40 mph, with lots of small, leafy debris blowing out of the trees. I realized it was probably going up, so there had to be a dust devil somewhere nearby. I watched for a full minute and began to wonder if it was just going to be a windy afternoon. Then, out in front, over the bushes, the direction started to change... the bushes began swirling, an intact dandelion seed puff lifted off the ground and floated up about 20 feet before disintegrating. I said "here it comes" to Sheba, then recently cut dry grass fluff began outlining the ghostly shape of a small tornado. The pitch of the sound increased and became quite loud, louder than the rustling tree and bush branches. Then, clumps of long dry grass (1 foot +) started rising quickly to more than 30 feet in the air. The shape was fairly well defined by now and I watched it move toward the southeast, moving from about 130 feet away, diagonally to about 50 feet away. Here it encountered a tree and garage and house structure and apparently broke apart. When it was spinning fast the 'eye' was probably 3 or 4 feet across at the throat. The velocity was high, maybe 70 to 90 mph, but lasted for less than 10 seconds. I ran outside to the back of the house and saw no sign of it. I did notice the wind was lighter, maybe 15 to 25 now. I went back in, I checked the thermometer again. The temp was now 81.5F. I checked the hi and it was 85.3F and the lo was 81.5F. That means the hi of 85.3F dropped to 81.5F during the Big Dust Devil!

Observed and written on May 24, 1997.
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