Tip worker captures amazing footage of dust devil spinning through a recycling centre

A tip worker was left stunned after capturing the rare moment a 'mini tornado' dust devil span through the grounds of a recycling centre.

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.

He quickly grabbed his mobile phone and began filming the freak weather phenomenon at Altham Household Waste Recycling Centre, in Lancashire.

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.

"It was huge, the video doesn't do it justice, the rubbish went way was right up in the air - it was mental.

“I am just glad to have been so close to one – it’s very rare in the UK.

“I didn't expect the video to get such a big reaction. I want to thank everyone for sharing commenting and following.”

According to the Met Office, the weather phenomenon in the video is a ‘dust devil’.

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.

They are usually several metres in diameter at the base, then narrowing for a short distance before expanding again.

The form in areas where the ground is dry and high surface temperatures produce strong updrafts.

The Met Office said: “Unlike tornadoes, dust devils grow upwards from the ground, rather than down from clouds.

“In the stronger dust devils, a cumulous cloud can be seen at the top of the rising column of warm air.

“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.

“Although they may resemble 'mini-tornadoes', dust devils are nowhere near as powerful or destructive.”