A tip worker was left stunned after capturing the rare moment a 'mini tornado' dust devil span through the grounds of a recycling centre.<br /><br />Jimmy Finchman, 40, was working on site at the dump when he spotted the twister forming as it threw dust and rubbish into the air.<br /><br />He quickly grabbed his mobile phone and began filming the freak weather phenomenon at Altham Household Waste Recycling Centre, in Lancashire.<br /><br />Jimmy, from Accrington, Lancs, said: "I have seen a smaller one before, but it was something else to be stood there in front of it.<br /><br />"It was huge, the video doesn't do it justice, the rubbish went way was right up in the air - it was mental.<br /><br />“I am just glad to have been so close to one – it’s very rare in the UK.<br /><br />“I didn't expect the video to get such a big reaction. I want to thank everyone for sharing commenting and following.”<br /><br />According to the Met Office, the weather phenomenon in the video is a ‘dust devil’.<br /><br />A dust devil is “an upward spiralling, dust-filled vortex of air that may vary in height from a few feet to over 1,000.<br /><br />They are usually several metres in diameter at the base, then narrowing for a short distance before expanding again.<br /><br />The form in areas where the ground is dry and high surface temperatures produce strong updrafts.<br /><br />The Met Office said: “Unlike tornadoes, dust devils grow upwards from the ground, rather than down from clouds.<br /><br />“In the stronger dust devils, a cumulous cloud can be seen at the top of the rising column of warm air.<br /><br />“They only last a few minutes because cool air is sucked into the base of the rising vortex, cooling the ground and cutting off its heat supply.<br /><br />“Although they may resemble 'mini-tornadoes', dust devils are nowhere near as powerful or destructive.”
