Watch: 'Corn devil' swirls through freshly harvested Kansas field

TOPEKA, Kan. – Forecasters with the National Weather Service office in Topeka, Kansas, captured a serene video of a "corn devil" swirling through a field on Friday. The NWS said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the dust devil, which has affectionately been named a "corn devil," was right outside the office door on a warm summer day. The video shows the well-developed dust devil picking up remaining cornstalks from the freshly harvested field. ‘OH MY GOD!’: METEOROLOGIST FINDS HIMSELF INSIDE DUST DEVIL IN ARIZONA Dust devils: Looks like a tornado, but it’s not People sometimes confuse a dust devil with a tornado, but they’re nowhere near as powerful or destructive. Dust devils typically form on fair weather days, including plenty of sunshine, warm temperatures and light winds. Intense heating along the ground causes a vast difference in temperature within a few hundred feet.

The heated air, now quite buoyant, will shoot upward, with surface winds providing some spin. They usually only last a few minutes, and they rarely cause damage.