Community Corner

It's a Twister! Man Videotapes Mini Tornado in Clark

Jamie Navarro was flying RC airplanes with a friend on Terminal Avenue, when a "dust devil" formed in front of them.

It started as a typical Saturday for Jamie Navarro and his friend Josell Paredes.

They planned to fly their RC airplanes and this time chose the open field on Terminal Avenue in Clark next to Navarro's job at the Lawbook Exchange.

"All of a sudden, Josell just tapped my shoulder and said 'Jamie, look man!'" says Navarro, 42, of Westfield.

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In front of their eyes, a spinning vortex starting picking up dust, debris and hay that was spread on the field, and even jostled their planes. Navarro says it came totally out of the blue.

"We don't even fly our planes in winds above 15 miles per hour, and there wasn't a stitch of wind that day," Navarro told Patch, describing Saturday, April 27.

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Instinctively, Navarro grabbed his camera and started shooting. In his video, above, you can watch the whirlwind as it moves across the field, over Navarro's car and eventually forms a funnel that reaches toward the sky.

"I jumped in my car as it passed over us," Navarro says. "Then it hit a building, and we didn't see it after that."

Navarro says the whirlwind wasn't strong enough to make him fear for his life, but it was powerful enough to toss around the airplanes, fill the hatchback of his car with hay and do a number on his long hair.

"When it was over we just looked at each other like 'Did that really just happen?'" he says. "It was definitely something cool. I've never seen anything like it in my life."

Later that night, Navarro showed the video to friends and posted it on YouTube. Someone chimed in and told him that the phenomenon was actually called a "dust devil."

An internet search reveals that the whirlwinds are not uncommon, with lots of YouTube videos like Navarro's – though none in Clark. According to Wikipedia, a dust devil is formed "when hot air near the surface rises quickly through a small pocket of cooler, low-pressure air above it."

Check out the video and tell us what you think in the comments.

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