The unusual weather phenomenon is more normally associated with the desert plains of North America.
But one was caught on camera by mum-of-two Melissa Mundy as it suddenly formed in a car park in Lacock, Wilts.
It picked up dust and gravel as it spun towards Melissa who was sitting in her car with her husband Ben and their two young children.
Melissa, 24, said: “I was just looking at something on my phone when my husband said ‘You have to see this.’
“I looked up and I saw it coming towards us, with the dust and gravel from the car park whirling around.
“We had to drive through it in the end – it didn’t do any damage fortunately – but I would have liked to film more of it as it went on behind us.”
Melissa filmed the freak but brief event on Tuesday lunchtime as she visited picturesque Lacock to celebrate her third anniversary with Ben, 37.
She added: “It was really weird as there was no wind or rain – the weather was just really still.
“The car temperature said it was around 11 degrees Celsius.”
Melissa, from Devizes, Wilts., who is mum to Joshua, three, and Clara, two, said she felt “incredibly lucky” to witness the dust devil.
The weather phenomenon is formed when hot air rises quickly through a pocket of cool, low-pressure air which can spin and stretch vertically.
They are usually harmless and short-lived – especially one of this size – but on rare occasions can pose a threat to people and property.
