Caught on camera: Colorado dust devil swoops through chicken coop
Dust devils can form when the surface is much warmer than the air above it
Colorado dust devil caught on cam
A dust devil moved through a Colorado chicken coop providing a scare to the hens.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – A group of backyard hens is probably counting their eggs after a dust devil tore through their coop, sending the animals scouring for cover.
The incident happened on Monday in the backyard of Jennifer Guidry.
Guidry lives on the south side of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and has a camera pointed watch over her chicken coop.
On March 28, atmospheric conditions appeared to be just right for the ground surface to be warmer than the air directly above it, causing the air to spin and a dust devil to form.
Video captured the entire incident from when the winds generally started picking up to the seconds of terror the hens faced as the vortex moved through their coop.
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"My poor girls just got thrown around by a dust devil sweeping through my backyard," Guidry wrote in a Facebook post.
The strong winds picked up straw, feed and even one of the hens, but the dust devil wasn't strong to force the chickens to cross the road.
After seeing the video, Guidry checked on the animals and said they appeared to be doing okay.
The National Weather Service says dust devils are common across parts of the Southwest because of the heating and terrain.
Usually, these forces of Mother Nature remain small, but some of the larger formations can have wind speeds that top 60 mph.