PASADENA, CA — A dust devil sent items small and large flying on Wednesday morning at a pregame event the Rose Bowl stadium.
The freak winds picked up during the Fanfest event located outside in the stadium’s grassy parking area. People were sent frantically racing away as canopies, metal poles, and tents were uprooted by the furious winds.
Four people were treated with minor injuries.
“The power it had to … lift up those tents and the huge inflatable and toss them around, it was really amazing,” Gary Knuedson said, CEO of AdSport, who also shot the video and posted it on YouTube.
A freak event for Pasadena, it has been called a weather anomaly.
“We’re calling it a dust devil but a cold one,” said National Weather Service forecaster Ryan Kittell. “It was not a tornado. There’s no thunder clouds in the area.”
Los Angeles Times:
Wednesday afternoon, as vendors prepared their booths, forecasters say a spike of cold air dropped down into Parking Lot H at the Rose Bowl, lifting and intensifying the wind around it until two booth canopies were torn from their stakes and lifted into the air…
“I suppose there has to be a lot of things in place for it to happen,” Bonnie Bartling, NWS weather specialist, said of the cold dust devil — which she termed a rare event.
“This is one of those situations where it was in place.”
Video: Gary Knudsen of AdSport
