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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.
landspouts are tornadoes, by any reasonable definition of a tornado. Like the waterspout, I'd prefer not having a specific term for this kind of event, since it only seems to create confusion.). Not all significant tornadoes are the same, even though their flow fields might end up looking alike ...