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Confidence votes 95.7K. A sand tornado is not truly a tornado. It is a phenomenon called a dust devil. Dust devils are whirlwinds that form when a layer of hot air forms just above the ground and rises in a relatively small, rotating column, picking up up dust or sand as it does so. Dust devils are rarely strong enough to cause damage, and are much weaker than tornadoes.
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud.he most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 300 miles per hour (480 km/h), stretch more than two miles (3 km) across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km). Various types of tornadoes include the landspout, multiple vortex tornado, and waterspout.