Massive dust devil spotted tearing through field in Southern California

A massive dust devil ripping through an open field in Riverside County over the weekend was captured on a driver’s cellphone camera.  

The Aug. 11 twister was spotted near Dunlap Road and San Jacinto Avenue, about eight miles south of the Lake Perris State Recreation Area. 

Footage of the incident showed the twister combined with a second dust devil, making it look even more ominous.  

A little more than a week before this dust devil was spotted, on Aug. 2, a skydiving instructor, 28-year-old Deverey LaRiccia Chase, and her student, 28-year-old Kayla Kieko Black, were after the pair were caught up in a pair of dust devils during a routine jump in Perris.  

A “dust devil” is a small, rotating column of air that picks up dust and debris from the ground on hot days; while they resemble tornadoes, they are generally considered to be harmless, except for certain circumstances.   

“She missed the first one, and when she maneuvered around it, she hit the second one,” Freddy Chase, a skydiver himself, said of his wife.  “At that point, she was about 25 to 30 feet in the air…it sent her canopy in a downward spiral.”   

With no time left to react, both Devrey and Kayla slammed into the ground.   

The two were rushed to a local hospital, where the former succumbed to her injuries that day and the latter just two days later.