“Is that a tornado?” As a child, I would ask this whenever I saw a whirlwind out on Papaw’s farm. It was fascinating to watch hay spin around up high in the air. For some reason, I had it stuck in my mind that all swirling winds were tornadoes. I even thought this as an adult.
Back when I was in school, I liked to drive home on the backroads sometimes to enjoy the scenery. On this one day, I was driving down Clinton Highway to catch Emory Road. Now, this was back in 80s, so that area wasn’t as built up as it is now. When I was about half a mile from my turn, my brain said: “Something isn’t right here.” After I focused my eyes, I was absolutely amazed.
In the middle of a gravel parking lot was a rapidly rotating column of what looked like a white cloud. It was about five feet wide. The bottom of the swirling cloud was darker in color from all of the dirt and other debris it had picked up and was carrying in it. It was almost touching a large pickup truck that was parked there. On the other side of the column stood a guy with a shocked look on his face. I’m talking his mouth was wide open. You know, you can’t help but wonder how much dust and other little debris was thrown into his mouth.
Looking back, I’m impressed that I had the mind not to blow up and stop so I could gawk at this spinning thing. But I did manage to slow down enough to peer up into the sky. To me it seemed as though this twisty column reached up and into the clouds. So that meant one thing to me: Tornado!!
My mind immediately went into survival mode in that I felt as if I needed to get away from that little twister. No, I didn’t speed or drive recklessly, but I kept looking back in my review mirror to see if it was moving and /or growing. I didn’t see it all once I was on Emory Road. After I was a couple miles away, I began to relax and actually reason. There were no storms or weather watches issued. The sky was partly cloudy and it wasn’t very windy. But I knew what I had seen. When I got home, I went straight to my grandparents’ house and related my “Tornado” close encounter to Mamaw Jo. She said: “Well, I swannie. Why don’t you call channel six and tell them about it?”
I got out the phonebook to look up that number. Remember, it was the 80s. As I dialed the phone, I was a little nervous since I had never ever called a TV station. Plus, would they even believe my strange story. The guy who answered the phone sounded very nonchalant at first. After I rambled on about seeing a small white tornado,” he put me through to the head meteorologist at that time: John Gerard. After I told him about the white tornado, he gave a little chuckle. That wasn’t what I had expected. At all. He said what I had witnessed was actually a dust devil. They’re similar to whirlwinds and form when hot air near the ground rises rapidly through a region of much cooler air and lower pressure. I thanked him for his time and he was very nice about it. That being said, I was rather surprised after I hung up the phone. I love the study of weather, but I had never before heard the term “dust devil.” But then again, we never had any of them out on the farm.
“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,” Job 38:1 (KJV)
The more I read Job, the more I love this book. Now, I recently noticed something about this verse; Job didn’t seem surprised by God speaking to him out of a whirlwind. But then again, he didn’t have access to the Holy Spirit as we Believers do. In fact, we get to go into the throne of grace when we pray.
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:18 (KJV)
If this dust devil incident had happened recently, the traffic on Clinton highway would probably come to a stop. Why? Because everybody would have their phones out to take pictures and/or videos. I bet they would have also thought it was a small white tornado.

Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.