A Southern California paragliding instructor says she felt thankful to be on solid ground after a massive dust devil erupted beside her moments after she landed in a desert drop zone.
Jessica Laird, a paragliding instructor, captured terrifying footage on Sept. 4 near Perris, California, showing the swirling vortex violently whipping up sand and debris close to a grassy landing area used for training jumps. She and fellow jumpers had immediately noticed the air turning eerily turbulent as they made their final descent, she told Storyful. Just a few moments after unhooking her gear safely on the ground, she looked up to see the monster dust column ripping across the desert floor.
“I felt thankful that I was on the ground,” she said, per KTLA. “Big dust devils in the landing area are a major hazard, and I’ve had friends who have been injured or even died from their parachute collapsing in a dust devil.”
According to the National Weather Service, these spinning dust columns are a common wind phenomenon across the globe, formed when intense surface heating creates powerful localized updrafts. While generally smaller and weaker than actual tornadoes, these vortices typically stretch between 10 and 300 feet in diameter, towering anywhere from 500 to 1,000 feet high with maximum wind speeds topping out around 60 miles per hour.
Despite their brief lifespans, a surprise dust devil can disrupt the landing pattern for paragliders and skydivers. The rapid changes in air pressure can instantly collapse a canopy, sending gliders plunging straight into the hard desert terrain below.
Laird’s footage shows the funnel tearing through the desert floor near the landing zone where she had just touched down. The close call highlights the hidden dangers that paragliders face even after what appears to be a successful landing, when shifting desert winds can spawn violent rotating columns without warning.