Today was day 3 of a howling South easter gale here, not great for robotic work, been stacking 2-3 bricks on each tripod leg, Some crazy dust devils coming out of nowhere today, just missing us, but made for some cool shots.
This one chased about 10 guys out of the back of the truck into the tree line for cover.
The day before we were at the coast and got this time lapse video on an iphone.
I rekon that dust devil would push the instrument over if it hit it dead on.
I had a Geodimeter ATS plunged deep in some sticky Texas black gumbo and a dust devil picked it up and slammed it onto the ground. It was about 30' in width. With no I-man near, it wound up getting hurt. Luckily I had a 2nd and was back up and running in no time. I love machine control.
badass photos!
Be careful!
Dust devils that size could easily maim or kill.
Was working for a month and a half in Adelanto Ca. 2 years ago. Saw many of them but the camera was always in the truck. By 10:00 AM 30 mph winds were normal. Some days were much windier. We set up low and sand bagged the legs. Holding the pole steady was the pain in the butt part of the operation. The locals said we were there for the worst brown out they've seen in years. Here is a shot of one on a site we were laying out in Indiana That bugger split right between mine and the other crews set ups 
I was on my way to a race years ago when one of my crews called me up. It seems a spring storm had popped up and a dust devil picked up our instrument along with a nearby outhouse. The instrument was a total loss. The bad part was that it was a demo 1103 that the local Leica rep had given us to show off the newfangled power search feature. Needless to say I bought it and then upgraded our own 1103. I almost had a heart attack when the insurance adjuster first tried to deny the claim because our rented equipment rider had been drop for some unknown reason. But since I had note paid a rental fee it was covered.